Caught in the Dust
by Hirosikata
Summary: When Luna finds out that there is a new ghost at Hogwarts, she is on a bigger adventure of a fifth year than she anticipated. Slight AU. Multiple pairings, no human OCs
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Oh, and if you do review, please no flames, but I do want lots of constructive criticism. Enjoy! P.S. This story kind of got screwed up a little, so since its slightly AU, I said what the heck, Snape is still the potions master.

Chapter 1

A freezing cold wind seemed to spring out of nowhere in the dungeon, making the students shiver. The dampness that hung in the air only made it worse. Only one student didn't seem to notice, a girl with stringy blonde hair and protuberant eyes that were staring up at the dark, stone ceiling, which she had named The Abyss. It was a most appropriate name, for its dark, fathomless features looked as if it went on forever. People, other students and the teacher, that is, cast strange looks in her direction, but she didn't seem to notice. As she moved slightly to her left, her butterbeer cap necklace jingled slightly. Her name was Luna Lovegood, but she was more commonly known as Loony Luna.

The face of a greasy-haired Professor Severus Snape came into view, shocking the girl into reality. Greasy black hair lined his equally greasy looking face. Dark, cold eyes stared at her and an obvious look of disdain adorned his features, "Miss Lovegood, does potions bore you?"

Completely oblivious to the question, she asked, "Do you know how to make a Frizzweed Potion?"

Snape looked confused.

"A Frizzweed Potion," Luna started, "is a potion that originated in Russia. Only a true potions master can make it. It uses Wolfs bane and Frizzweed to make a potion that allows the user to read minds."

Snape snorted, "I have not heard of such a thing, Miss Lovegood."

"Then you are obviously not a potions master," she replied as if the man was stupid and did not know what it meant if he could not make a Frizzweed Potion. In her opinion, it was the most obvious thing in the world that he was no master if he could not make a Frizzweed Potion.

With a huff and an even more disdainful glare, Snape spun around and nearly stomped to his own desk. "Ten points from Ravenclaw."

The Ravenclaws in the dank, dark room groaned and glared in her direction. In front of her sat a girl with long, flaming red hair. She turned and gave her an apologetic shrug and smile. Ginny Weasley was a girl whom she was starting to consider a friend, her first friend ever, in fact. Luna acknowledged the look with a nod before turning to the magazine before her, although her mind was still on The Abyss and all the wonder that surrounded it. _The Quibbler_ was her father's magazine. It was his pride and joy after her. In it, her father wrote how much he missed her and loved her and how much he couldn't wait to see her, secretly, of course, in the articles.

It was a code they had made a long time ago, when they discovered he wasn't able to write letters very often. It let her know he hadn't forgotten about her on his adventures around the world, and managing a magazine. She believed his articles because of that, the fact that he was always there for her, even if he was thousands of miles away, even if he had to use a Schnorkal Hogpuff to get to her.

Snape dismissed the class a few minutes later and everyone gathered their things and headed to the Great Hall for lunch. A very unhealthy lunch, Luna noted when she first came to the school, full of meat and sugary snacks, with few fruits and vegetables and little milk products. Ginny was waiting for her at the heavy wooden doorway that was the entrance to the dungeon room. Sweet, pretty, little Ginny Weasley would wait for her; she was nice like that. Sometimes, Luna thought she should be a little less nice because being too nice was how you got stalkers. And stalkers were not good.

Smiling as they walked down through the dungeon corridor, Ginny broke the silence, "Snape is a major arse, isn't he?"

Luna nodded, completely serious, as she replied, "He's a bully that should be repressed."

Ginny giggled slightly, although she tried to hide it behind a cough, as she heard footsteps behind her, no doubt Snape, and he would probably knock off points just for laughing, he was such a depressing man. "Repressed… I like that word. It sounds like we're going to be rebels trying to overthrow an evil tyrant bent on world domination. Now, wouldn't that be fun?"

"It'd be positively horrid, for the evil tyrant would probably try to exterminate the wonderful Snifflers."

Ginny was able to tone her giggling down to a grin; slowly she was becoming used to Luna's odd sense of humor. "What are Snifflers?"

Happy to explain, Luna began, "Contrary to popular belief here in the wizarding world, Snifflers are not muggle drug users. They actually live in the shadows of happy people. In fact, we may have one in our own shadows, but we will more than likely never know because they are very shy and invisible most of the time. Only three people on Earth have ever seen one, and they were all over 80 years old, so they Snifflers had time to get to know them. You really should subscribe to _The Quibbler_, Ginny, it's very informative."

Ginny nodded, "Maybe I will when I get some money, Luna. Maybe I will." There was a slight pause, "Then, maybe we could carry a conversation without me having to question the creatures you talk about."

Luna had to admit she was surprised; nearly everyone that she had mentioned subscribing to _The Quibbler_ to had burst out laughing in her face. They entered the Great Hall, but she didn't go to her own house table (she was still being glared at because of her losing 10 house points), instead she followed Ginny and squeezed in-between the handsome Harry Potter and the shy Neville Longbottom. Both gave her a quick, questioning look before greeting her. Hermione slightly glared in her direction before turning to talk to Ginny. Luna didn't care; that was a normal reaction to her. Shrugging, she turned to the food that appeared in front of her.

The seductive call of the night drew Luna from her bed. It was one of those nights when nothing could get you to sleep. One of those nights when you just want to move, run, jump, scream, and sing, anything to get you to sleep. Luna needed to be exploring. Doing something to take her mind off the world around her normally wasn't hard, but tonight was different.

When she was in her first year, she had discovered that the castle had more secrets than most books or even the residents knew about. Exploring had always been fun, discovering the unknown. With those thought in mind, Luna set off down an empty corridor, quietly, like a thief or an assassin trying to get to her target. Just know, that target was a mystery. The staircases changed more times that she could count, or rather, more times than she would care to count, but, that was another thing about the castle that she had gotten used to. Carefully, she put a hand on the cold stonewall for guidance in this new world. For that was what Hogwarts was in the dark, at night, a whole knew world, both beautiful and scary.

Her hand gripped some sort of freezing metal knob protruding from the wall. Without realizing it, she pressed down and something mobbed. A slight breeze passed her and she moved to meet a rather large hole in the wall that she was positive had been pure stone only moments before. "Bloody Schnorkleburger," she whispered rather louder than she should have, "I should have brought a lantern with me!"

Footsteps echoed off the walls. 'Filch.' She thought and stepped slowly inside, letting her cautious side take over. Most of the time, she may seem carefree and out of it, but she was still a Ravenclaw, and that meant she was smarter than many other people. It also meant that she had a little more sense in her muddled brain than to just go crawling into a dark, mysterious hole in the dead of the night, in a magic castle, on top of that. Places like the Room of Requirement were perfect examples of reasons to go in. Just, in that case, the room hadn't been dangerous, but that didn't mean that there weren't any dangerous rooms in Hogwarts.

The Chamber of Secrets was a perfect example. That was one scary time at Hogwarts for a confused first year she had to admit. Poor Ginny had gone through that horrible ordeal nearly all alone, except at the end when Harry saved her. Thank the heavens for Harry the Hero, as she sometimes thought of him as. "_Incedio,_" she whispered. The end of her wand lit up and she saw that the little hole led into a little cobweb filled room, and an old and worn looking staircase. The footsteps drew closer and she saw light start to pour down the corridor. Combined with her curiosity, she overcame her better judgment and walked into the room, slightly hunched over to fit through the hole.

There was a soft thud behind her, and she knew that the wall had shut before she turned around and placed a hand on it, groping for an opening. Inside, she could still hear the footsteps and she judged that they stopped a little ways away from where she currently was. The urg to cry out was hard to suppress. What if she never got out of the wall? But, she was still curious and could see her father in her mind telling her not to pass up such a great opportunity, help would probably come later.

Before she knew it, she was climbing the stairs. When she reached the top, a door barricaded her path. It was just as old as the stairs, if not more so, and refused to budge when she tried to open it. But, before that, she had tried to use the Alohomora spell. It didn't work; the door had some sort of anti-spell in it. One she couldn't figure out, which was odd, because she had a knack for undoing an anti-spell spell.

When the door opened, a large cloud of dust rose, causing her to cough and gag, and her eyes to burn from the dirt that got in them. Once the cloud had resettled, and her coughing stopped, a room with worn yellow drapes hung from the walls, and black rugs nearly in shreds were strewn on the floor. A four-poster bed rested in a corner, as well as a long bookshelf that looked as though it were about to break. Near the long slit of a window that allowed a small amount of moonlight in was a low table with a chipped china set.

The Hufflepuff crest covered nearly an entire wall. 'What a strange place,' she thought, absolutely delighted at finding this strange, old room, 'A perfect place for Warbogles, they lobe these dusty areas!'

But, suddenly, her eyes became transfixed on the center of the room. At first she thought it was some sort of god-like statue, but, after studying it, she saw that it was a ghost. A teenage boy ghost that, if she was not mistaken, looked quite familiar. He stood, looking at her in shock, before turning on his heels and running through the opposite wall.

She called after him to stop, but he didn't. Instead she was left standing at the door, staring at the empty space he had taken up only moments before. Realizing that the ghost wasn't coming back, she turned and made her way carefully down the stairs after shutting the door. To her surprise, the hole in the wall opened nearly instantly after she stepped off the stairs. A wave of sleepiness overtook her and she headed toward the Ravenclaw common room. The hole opened automatically.

A/N: I tried to keep Luna as in character as possible while still showing her crazy side, not caring side, but adding in a sense of carefulness that isn't fully explored in the books, besides in the Department of Mysteries. Also, this story will be slow getting to the romance, I want to introduce the characters and all that fully, and maybe make them evolve a little before adding in anything to serious. I hope you enjoyed it, please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I still do not own Harry Potter. Please read and review.

Chapter 2

The early morning sun shone through Luna's room's windows, waking her up. Quickly dressing in her customary, and required, school uniform and butterbeer cap necklace, she headed to the Great Hall. When she entered, she was surprised to learn she was one of the first down to breakfast, because normally, she was one of the last. Her mind was jam packed with ideas to who the ghost boy was, but nothing was certain. Currently, she was favoring the idea that he was one of Hogwarts's founders, either Salazar Slytherin or Godric Gryffindor, revisiting loyal Helga Hufflepuff's rooms, a lover without his other half, eternally searching for his true love in the abandoned rooms.

The more she thought about it, the more she liked such a romantic notion, which was odd. Normally she was not a romantic person. She was as far from romantic as possible, most of the time. In fact, she was getting downright excited; not that she wasn't excited before, she really was, but now she was even getting red from the thrill of her idea. She hadn't felt like this in months. All other ideas rushed out of her mind in a whirlwind as she settled on this one. It was, by far, the most interesting. The possibilities that would open for her if it were true were amazing. 'I could even tell dad about it and it could become an article for _The Quibbler_,' she thought, pleased that she thought of the idea. It was then she made up her mind; she couldn't tell anybody about her discovery. _The Quibbler_ would be its debut.

Cho Chang, a pretty Asian looking girl with a soft Scottish accent, and a fellow Ravenclaw two years older than herself, sat two seats away. For once, she, Cho Chang, that is, wasn't surrounded by what seemed to be hundreds of friends and loyal admirers. Cho grinned at her uneasily, to which Luna grinned back a little goofily, she wasn't sure what to do at a kind smile from someone she barely knew, and turned back to her food. Cho hadn't said anything bad _to_ Luna, but that didn't mean she hadn't said anything bad to her friends about her. But she hadn't gone out of her way to be nice or mean. Nobody was nice. Not until Ginny. And Neville. Neville was sweet, but a little bit afraid of her.

"Luna," someone yelled. Ginny. Now, that was a coincidence as she had just been thinking about her. The redhead waved her over to the Gryffindor table, but Luna shook her head in refusal; this was one of those days where all she wanted to do was just be alone like she used to be and think. Too bad what she wanted was going to be denied, at least it was in the morning, as Ginny was headed to her house table. "Hey Luna," she greeted with a stunning smile before sitting down and grabbing some toast, ignoring the stares she got; Luna was strange, why would such a pretty girl sit with her? Sometimes Luna wanted the self-assured smile Ginny always had. Instead, she chose to ignore the odd looks she got, rather than rise up and challenge them like Ginny did.

"Hello Ginny. How has your morning been," there were a few moments of silence only broken by crunching as Ginny bit down into her toast.

"It has been tiring. I forgot about an essay due this afternoon, so I have been up since three in the morning writing it. I finished a few minutes ago." Ginny groaned before shaking her head, no doubt reminiscing the horrors of writing her essay. "Luna, do you ever think of dating anyone?"

Luna shifted uncomfortably. Although she didn't want to admit it, and probably never would out loud, this was kind of a sore spot for her. "I try not to. Think, that is. I try not to think about dating anyone."

More curious than before, Ginny asked, "Why not?"

Luna grinned, "I am saving myself for my first true love."

Nearly falling over laughing, Ginny replied, "I wasn't talking about sex."

"Neither was I."

Ginny looked at her both oddly and admiringly, she wouldn't wait for her first true love to date, that would take too long, "But, how will you know he is your true love, or even that you like him if you don't date?"

Luna looked completely serious as she said, "He will ask me out… on a real date."

At first, Ginny didn't get what Luna meant, it made no sense, but then it dawned on her, Luna was considered loony, insane, by practically all of the school. It hadn't really registered to her that they still called her that. Not since she had become Luna's friend. Nobody said bad, really bad, things about Luna around her. Only Hermione, but that was to be expected; Hermione didn't like people who were that different. Few guys would go out with a girl whom people thought was insane.

"I think it's time for herbology," Ginny whispered.

"Yes, I believe it is so. Would you like me to tell you the story of the Ancient Egyptian warrior Amu who became a high priest because of his extreme magical power," Luna asked on their way out of the castle, down the dirt path to the Greenhouses,

"Sure Luna that would be nice."

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. During lunch Luna had gone searching for the ghost, but she couldn't find him or the little knob that led into the strange Hufflepuff room. But, she wasn't the kind to give up hope so easily; her beliefs in magical creatures that other people said didn't exist and she hadn't ever seen before her stated that. Later on in the night, at nearly the same time as before, Luna headed down the corridors, in search of the little knob. And, just as she had suspected, the room opened up. In a book her father had once bought for her, it mentioned that the Chinese would put spells on doors so that they were only usable at certain times, and European wizards had eventually adopted these spells back in the 12th century.

Quickly, she ran up the stairs and opened the door to the room, this time with little resistance.

It looked exactly the same, both old and serene. But, this time, the ghost boy was sitting at the small table, bent studiously over a thick book. When he heard the door open, he looked up and prepared to run, or float, or do whatever ghosts did to escape, but Luna stopped him just in time.

"Wait," she yelled, slightly chasing after him. He stopped, but he didn't turn to face her. "Are you Godric Gryffindor or Salazar Slytherin?"

He chuckled and shook his head. Slowly he turned to face her, a small smile playing on his lips, and she got the strange sense that she knew him, from long ago. She got the feeling that if there was more light and she could get a better look at him, she would know exactly who he was. "No, " he said as he literally burst into fits of laughter.

"Oh," she paused for a second, "Too bad, it would have made an excellent story, the fact that one of the founders of Hogwarts was still haunting the castle and searching for his one true love and all. So, who are you?" She took a step closer, studying his face.

"Sorry to disappoint you on the whole not being one of the founders of Hogwarts." He stopped and a strange expression flitted across his face, as if remembering something important. "I- I can't tell you who I am. You could tell…everyone."

"Who am I going to tell, its not like I tell my secrets to everyone. I keep my secrets. Plus, it's not like your one of the founders. Nope, wouldn't promise a thing if you were one of them. Have you ever seen a Warbogle in here?"

"A what…no never mind, I'm not sure I want to know," he said, shaking his head. "Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine, I guess."

Luna shrugged, "I would have told you anyway, but I'm Luna Lovegood, or Loony Luna, if you prefer. It is my most popular name by far."

"Luna's fine," he said thoughtfully. Kids could be cruel. Not that he hadn't ever called someone names before; he was just as guilty as everyone else when it came to name calling. " Cedric."

Luna's brain processed the piece of information before her eyes grew even wider in surprise. "You're the boy who died! You died in the Triwizard Tournament nearly two years ago!" She rubbed her chin in deep thought, a misty glaze covering her already dreamy eyes, "Now that is interesting. Much more interesting than I thought it would be after you denied being one of Hogwarts's founders, it even beats out C.R. Luck's article on the fuzzy creatures on the moon who are plotting to overthrow the human race."

He gave her a strange look, which didn't go unnoticed, but she didn't dwell on it. She never dwelled on it, there was no point, it happened too often. "You're the girl who came here last night aren't you?"

"Yes, I was here last night, if that is what you're asking. But, there could have been another girl up here exploring in the middle of the night, trying to secretly overthrow Filch."

He ignored that last comment almost completely, the only way you could tell that he heard it was the small smile plastered on his face. "It's almost morning, you better get to your room."

She nodded and headed out of the room. Behind her, Cedric called, "Remember you said you wouldn't tell anyone I'm here."

"I won't."

I used the first part of this from the movie War of the Worlds, so thank you Spielberg.

I hope you enjoyed it, as I said in the last chapter, romance still won't be coming for a while yet, at least not for Luna. Review please.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters; they are the soul property of JK Rowling. Please review! Enjoy!

Chapter 3

The next few days passed by uneventfully. Luna had discovered that she was extremely tired and couldn't get up at night and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring herself to get out of the warmth of her bed. She was half afraid that Cedric wouldn't be there next time she went to see him. She was afraid that maybe everything had been a dream and that the most exciting thing that had ever happened in her life didn't exist. Too bad she couldn't see him during the day, after testing it in the daylight again, she discovered what she had originally thought was true. The knob only appeared at night for sure; on top of that, the door might even appear at a certain time at night.

A pile of unfinished homework sat in front of her. It was nearly 8 o'clock, and Ginny wanted her to finish her homework today so they could spend tomorrow, Sunday, together. It quite put her out that Ginny rarely missed a homework assignment, if ever, and expected her friends to be the same way. Today, she was meeting Harry in the library. In fact, she was meeting him in a few minutes, according to her clock. She wanted to know more about Cedric, but she didn't know whom to ask about him. Earlier, she had tried to ask Cho about him, as politely as she could, but got no answer and was laughed at by all of her friends. She had tried to comfort Cho when Cedric died, but was told to bugger off. But, Luna forgave her; she was going through a rough time, but after the funeral Cho had changed. She was more emotional and needy, and she pushed people away she had been nice to before. People like Luna.

The Great Hall was still packed when she arrived, not that she cared, she just plopped herself in between two of her housemates, who looked none-to-pleased. In fact, they got up and left within seconds, whispering something about not wanting to sit by Loony Luna or any insane person as they walked away. Quickly, she grabbed some cheese, eggs, toast, sausage, and a ketchup-like substance. Out of it, she made a breakfast sandwich. People stared at the red goop that covered her eggs, but they didn't say a word, or at least, not in ear shot. Shoving the rest down, she grabbed a normal untoasted piece of white bread and spread butter over it. Over that, she evenly spread some sugar. Milk was normally used for the cereal that was served, but she dipped her sugary bread in it, receiving stares now from nearly all the people in the Hall. There weren't that many people in the Great Hall anymore, anyway, most had been halfway done when she arrived.

In her opinion, her breakfast was positively delectable and delicious, but other people probably thought differently, if the expressions on their faces were any indication. Someone shot a spit wad at her back and erupted into a fit of laughter. She could feel it sticking to her robes, the saliva level so great that it started to sink through her clothes. 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but spit wads will never hurt me…or something like that.' She thought to herself as she headed to the library to meet Harry Potter.

Harry was already waiting, gazing openly at Cho Chang, who sat at a corner table, studying with her boyfriend. Luna knew what he was thinking and it wasn't thoughts of undying love for the girl. It was pity for her boyfriend to have to put up with such an emotional head case.

"Hello Harry," she greeted, slightly waving a hand in front of his face.

"Oh, erm, hi…Luna," he replied, leaving an abnormally long pause of silence.

'That seems to happen a lot when I'm around,' "What did you want to see me for?"

"Cedric Diggory," she said directly, he looked confused, "I want to know about who he was. What he was like."

Harry stared, "Why not ask Cho, she's in your house?" In truth, his fourth year had been one of his hardest and he found himself trying to repress all the horrible memories that had gone along with the Triwizard Tournament. Or, more important, the visual of Cedric's death.

Shrugging, Luna replied, "I tried. She didn't answer me."

Harry sighed and flinched, recalling some now-painful memories before starting, "He was what I have been told you girls like and consider a Prince Charming. He was smart, strong, good at quidditch, and handsome, I suppose. He was also loyal and brave. Every bit of him screamed Hufflepuff. He had a strong sense of justice. He dated Cho Chang."

"He was utterly boring, then." Luna cut in.

"What?"

"It seems as though he has no actual personality, so far. Nothing to make him different, no quirks. Saying he's too perfect is the proper description."

"I-I suppose," a slightly confused Harry said, although a smile lit his face at the thought of Cedric Diggory, aka Prince Charming, being a boring person. Most of the Hogwarts population would strongly disagree, calling him the picture of cool, "He-oh, I don't know. Didn't you see him at the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Yes. It was all very lovely besides the fact that he died."

"Erm… ok," Harry didn't know how to talk to this strange girl half of the time, she made him nervous.

"_Was_ there anything that set him apart from others?"

"He helped me…with the Triwizard Tournament. He was a good friend."

"Very well," Luna said, standing up, "Thank you for giving me this information, Harry."

'That was no true help. I already knew all of that.'

Luna sat in her common room, staring at the blazing fire before her. She felt herself smiling for no reason at all. The flames entertained her with their constant moving and cackling. It reminded her of her father. Last summer he had taken her to Africa, searching for 'Ancient Magic'. They didn't find anything like that, but the tribal people had become their friends. They had even christened her Moon Child, for her strange looks and blonde hair. Her favorite person had been the Wise Woman, she taught her things about the spirits.

People started to go to their dormitories, tired from their free day, but sleep didn't come to her. Visions of last year's Triwizard Tournament swept through her mind. The majestic dragons, ugly, but strangely beautiful mermaids, and the horrifically huge maze; the maze that had killed Cedric. Luna could remember sitting in the stands, waiting for someone to win, just as excited as everyone else, and the dead seventh year turning up, Harry's body spread over him protectively, sobbing. Her father told her that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back; he was one of the few that would always believe Dumbledore, and she believed in them both.

It had scared her when she had learned that one of Hogwarts's own students was dead. The thought had finally hit her that any of them could die, you could never go back to thinking that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was dead. You had to realize you could be killed, just like everyone else. Anyone could be killed. But, what had surprised her was that hardly anyone believed Dumbledore when he said that he was back. No one believed the most powerful wizard in the world.

Now, the war had started and everyone believed Dumbledore. She didn't know why people didn't believe him in the first place. Ginny said it was because people didn't want to believe that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back, but that didn't make sense. At least, not to her point of thinking, they could have prepared if they believed him. They treated Dumbledore like they treated _The Quibbler, _like they treated her. Not the Hogwarts students, for the most part, except for the Slytherins, but society. It stung her to know someone else was treated like her, not comfort her, like people may have thought.

Somehow, she found herself wandering the halls, dodging Filch, and going up the stairs that were becoming even more familiar to her than any others. Cedric was standing at the door when she entered the enchanted room, slightly grinning. "I figured you were coming."

Luna didn't say a word. Instead, she sat on one of the cushions surrounding the table. He followed her, walking as if he were still alive. "What's it like being dead?"

He stared at her, "I'm not quite sure."

"But, you're dead."

He flinched, "I try not to dwell on it."

"But-"

"That's the end of the subject. That's what my statement meant. 'I try not to dwell on it' translates to this closes the subject."

"Which conversation, this one or that one?"

"What was that one?"

"Which one?"

Cedric started laughing. "Never mind."

"You know, I remember you from before you died. You were never cruel to me. At least, not to my face."

Cedric shook his head, "I never did understand why people called you Loony. Being different wasn't ever a crime in my book."

"I would very much like to read your book sometime, Mr. Diggory."

"Maybe I'll lend it to you sometime. The point is, I remember you Luna. You were never a bad kid."

"Thanks."

When she left, Cedric sat with a slight smile plastered on his face. It had been a long time since he had talked to anyone this interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I do not own Harry Potter. Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Cold, hard dirt met her chest as she crashed to the ground. Above her, Draco Malfoy stood smirking, his lackeys laughing hard behind him. "Loony Luna, Loony Luna," they chanted, making her feel as if she were lower than dirt, or at least trying to. One thing they hated was that she always got up and acted as if nothing had happened, as if she wasn't cut up and bleeding.

Malfoy kicked her hard in he shin, making her yelp loudly in pain. "Loony people belong in the St.Mungo's, Lovegood," he told her, "Or didn't you know that? Do you know that you are insane?" She crawled away from him to gather her scattered books and quills and her ripped bag. "Go to St.Mungo's, Lovegood, it's where you belong."

Laughing and snickering, they left, not caring about anything they did. Witnesses turned their heads away, but whether they were ashamed of the Slytherins' behavior or from having to look at her, she didn't know. She held up the two limp pieces of torn fabric that was once her bag. It didn't really matter, she had another bag in the dormitory, but her father had sent her this particular bag from his adventure in Austria, searching for secret vampire societies that supposedly were in the area with 25 fellow wizards. They hadn't found anything, but Luna thought that that was for the best, you never knew what vampire would do. In some dangerous ways, her father was _too_ out there; not that she wasn't what, what with the Department of Mysteries and all, but she feared for him.

A pair of strong hands came into view, helping her gather her things. She looked up to see the jet black, messy top of Harry's head. He looked at her and grinned, his amazing deep green eyes somehow extremely comforting, "Sorry I didn't get here sooner or I would have beat Malfoy to a pulp."

She highly doubted that; he wouldn't want to be expelled, but she desperately wanted to believe him, she truly did.

"What class did you have," Luna asked, the only outdoor classes were Care and Keeping of Magical Creatures and Herbology, and she was sure that he wasn't in one of them because one was a first year class and the other was hers. There were other people outside who weren't in either of those classes, but she was also positive he wasn't one of them.

"I was just in Transfiguration; I saw you out of the window. I got here as quickly as I could. Are you alright?" he asked, noting her bloody knee.

She glanced down at it, "I better go see Madam Pomfrey to get some bandages," she stood and tried to walk, but tripped and would have fallen to the ground again if Harry hadn't caught her.

"I'll help you, Luna. Plus, I think you'll want to take your things with you."

"Harry, go have lunch with your friends, I can go myself." 'Go eat lunch with Ginny, she's in love with you even if you can't see it.'

"Sorry, I can't leave a friend like that," he said, putting an arm around her to help her walk.

"Friend," she asked curiously.

"What else would you be after last year," he questioned right back.

"An acquaintance."

"Nope, you are most defiantly a friend. No point in arguing, Luna, you're stuck with me."

"Oh, the horror," she said, overdramatically. It was strange…he still looked at her like she was a total weirdo, but in a nicer way. Like that was who she was and it was OK. He made it seem OK to just joke around, be sarcastic, even, dare she think it, act normal. Sometimes, it felt completely nice to be normal. But, being weird was funnier.

He just grinned as they entered the infirmary. Madam Pomfrey rushed over and led them to a bed, instructing Harry to set her on it carefully, Luna slightly protesting, "You'll be up and running in a half hour, Miss Lovegood. Until then, just walk. Don't over exert yourself. Mr. Potter, I'm charging you with her care, watch her carefully." With that, she bustled out the door, and the duo could have sworn they heard the nurse's stomach growling.

Harry shook his head half in amusement, half in disdain. "Well, Luna, I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

Together they walked down the corridors to the Great Hall, Luna explaining the odd diets of Muffleworms the entire way there and Harry humoring her with his own input to what he thought about the odd subject.

Luna walked down the steps of the tower from her Astronomy class alone. Everyone else was walking in groups; it was quite spooky in the Astronomy Tower after sundown. Actually, it was creepy all the time. There was a slight breeze and someone whispered, "Luna."

She whopped around, her face completely freezing as it went through Cedric's chest. Gasping, she stopped and grasped the stonewall with one hand, and held her face in the other.

"I-I'm so sorry," he whispered; there were still some other students in war shot.

"It- it's alright," she said finally, releasing her face, revealing a slight, but shaky grin.

"I-I really am sorry." He looked shakier than she did.

"I said I'm alright."

"I-I-I know," there was a silence that clung to the air, making the towere seem awkward and stuffy instead of creepy before Luna started talking about an article in _The Quibbler _to beak the silence.

Laughing, Cedric held up a hand to quiet her, "I came here to tell you something, as interesting as the article sounds. Maybe you could bring a couple issues of the infamous _Quibbler_ to me sometime?"

"Of course," Luna replied excitedly. Someone new wanted to read _The Quibbler!_

He looked away for a few minute, out a thin window at the dark, starry sky. He looked s majestic and ethereal that Luna could not help but let out a soft gasp. Not looking at her, he started, "I think that you need to stand up for yourself."

A look of confusion set over Luan's features. He groaned and looked at her, "I saw what happened with that Malfoy bastard this afternoon. You need to tell him to bugger off."

"It doesn't matter," she told him straightforwardly, "They'll just keep making fun of me."

"But you have friends that are willing to stand up for you."

"Who?"

"Ginny, Harry, Neville, I think Hermione would, although she would never consider herself your friend in the near future. She respects you, though, from what I heard, for what you did at the Department of Mysteries. Just think about it. Don't let people push you around."

With a grin and reassuring look, he headed through a wall.

A/N: I am slightly bored. I have everything planned out for this story, but nothing fun really happens for like 5 or 6 or 7 more chapters. I forgot which. I have written to chapter 8, so I'm counting until after that.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don not own Harry Potter character. Thanks for the reviews! Please keep them coming! Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Somehow, Luna found herself staring into the blazing fire in the Ravenclaw common room. It was nearly three in the morning and the loud and prolonged snoring of her dorm mates wouldn't allow her to sleep. In fact, she was certain you could hear their honking, rude noises even now, and they were three floors up. A recurring nightmare didn't help matters much, either.

She could remember running in a fog and not knowing where she was going. Behind her, some sort of shadowy figure chased her, calling her name in a raspy voice. Before her, two other figures stood, although she couldn't tell who they were, they both called out in familiar voices, but something in the back of her mind whispered softly, yet urgently that choosing the wrong figure would kill her.

Near her ear, the voice of her mother begged her not to choose the wrong path. Pure confusion washed over her entire body and she didn't know where to turn. Then, she would wake up. Nothing ever got farther than that. She found herself missing the old days, before Hogwarts, curling up with her father as he read her muggle fantasy novels, both of them laughing at how different the wizarding world actually was. Back before her mother died.

She could feel him behind her before he actually appeared. He sat down in the armchair beside her. "What's on your mind?"

"Egypt," she lied, "Father promised to take me there to visit the tombs, if I pass all my classes. But, I don't think I can, at least not with top grades." She wasn't ready to tell him her dream yet. Some parts of her life she had to keep to herself. No, most parts. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why would you think something's wrong?" he questioned.

"You're a horrible liar. We'll need to work on that along with your knowledge of magical creatures. Spit it out."

He shifted uncomfortably and seemed to find a spot on the floor very interesting. "How's Cho?"

She should have suspected it was that. "She's doing alright."

"Has she- has she dated anybody," he asked, still not looking her in the eye.

"Yes," Luna shifted awkwardly; Cedric seemed a little surprised and maybe even shocked. "She went out on a date or two with Harry last year, but that didn't work out because Harry didn't know how to comfort her over your death. Then, she started dating Roger Davies, and still is dating him as far as I know. At first, everyone thought she dated him to make Harry jealous, but now they truly seem to like each other. Or, that's what I've heard, curtsey of my dorm mates gossiping, all of it may be a lie. It doesn't even compare with the news from the Yukon about the abominable snowman attacking small children and old ladies."

He was silent for a few minutes, "Good. I want her to be happy. She deserves to be happy."

"Yes, she does…but so do you," Cedric stared at Luna because of her statement.

"I'm a ghost, Luna, I shouldn't need to be happy."

"But you do. You do need to be happy."

He didn't say anything, but something in his gaze changed, "Thank you."

After classes the next afternoon Luna found Ginny sitting on a bench near the lake. She looked like she was in deep thought, but lost, like she didn't know where her thought s were leading or how to get them to where she wanted them to got. "Hello Ginny," she said, sitting down by the girl.

Ginny jumped slightly, but grinned at her friend, "Hello Luna," she said softly, with a touch of unsteadiness quivering in her voice. Something that wasn't at all like how she normally was; Ginny was never quiet or unsteady.

"Did you know that some people in Africa worship a god that kills them and others worship aliens?"

"No Luna, I didn't know that."

Luna cocked her head to the side, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Harry," the girl groaned, "I like him. I really like him. But, he doesn't notice. I'm trying to follow Hermione's advice, you know, and be myself and let him come to me, but it's really hard."

Luna just stared, "I mean, nothing seems to be working. What can I do, Luna, what can I do?"

"Just keep following Hermione's advice, Gin."

Ginny brought her knees to the bench and buried her head in them, "Luan have you ever liked anybody?"

"Why sure," Luna replied, surprised by the question, "I like Harry and Ron and you, why?"

Ginny shook her head. At times she would have been amused, but now she was serious and wanted seriousness in return. The thought came to her that maybe Luna was the wrong person to come to, but that thought passed. AN air of comfort was layered around Luna, and that was what she needed. Not Hermione's analysis or other girl's constant giggling. "No. Have you ever been…in love? Like with a boy?"

"No. I can't say that I have. But, I must say that it is very hilarious to see Ronald's face when you act like you like him."

Ginny grinned slightly. She had been wondering about why Luna acted like that around Ron. 'Weasley is Our King' s tune filled the air through Luna's humming, "We really need to get you a boyfriend."

"You are too king, Gin. I am quite alright without a boyfriend."

"Whatever you say, Luna."

The water's rays caught Luna's eyes as Ginny walked away. 'I don't need anyone. I don't.'

Professor McGonagall's eyes swept over the teacher's common room. Professor Snape wasn't in, of course; he spent most of his time in his rooms and making potions. Professor Sprout was having a conversation with Madame Hooch. Finally, she noticed Professor Flitwick sitting an overly stuffed armchair near the fireplace. Sipping a cup of tea and reading a book. Weaving in and out of desks, stacks of books, and armchairs, McGonagall finally found her way over to the short old man.

"Flitwick," she acknowledged, sitting down across from him.

"Why my dear Minerva, what a pleasure, sit, sit," he greeted merrily.

McGonagall rolled her eyes. No one should always sound so cheerful and easy to step over when you wanted something. Instead of taking the time to exchange pleasantries, as he expected and the rules of common courtesy said to do, she skipped right to the point, "Professor Flitwick, "I understand that Loony…Miss Luna Lovegood is in your house."

"That is correct," he replied curiously, "But I don't see what-"

McGonagall shook her head; "Allow me to finish, Professor, if you would please." He nodded in silent agreement, "good I have noticed Miss Lovegood has been acting rather… odd as of late."

"She's always been odd," he said pointedly, pride slightly swelling in his voice, "It's in her personality."

"Odder than usual," McGonagall said in exasperation.

"Hmm… I haven't noticed anything different… but I'm old and completely oblivious to most people's emotions."

McGonagall silently agreed with the statement, but pushed it to the back of her mind, "I think we should keep a closer eye on her."

"Of course," Flitwick agreed readily, "That may be for the best. Now, if you would excuse me, my book was just getting good. I believe it's nearing the climax," he let out a girlish giggle and stuffed his face back into the book.

Without another word, McGonagall started walking away, silently laughing; she was almost certain that he was reading a muggle romance novel. She had to admit that she did ignore the girl; she was just so odd. But, she was also worried about her student. Something was doing on that she didn't know about. Something big.

"Miss, would you like something to eat," asked a short house elf named Nini.

'Hot chocolate," Luna told her. Some nights, when she was hungry or bored, she would come here, to the kitchens. Ginny had showed her where they were, and Fred and George had showed her. While she waited, she read a back issue of the American muggle magazine _Science Fiction and Fantasy_ as she munched on a biscuit that they, the house elves that is, had given her.

"Their biscuits are rather delightful," a voice behind her said. She turned around. Dumbledore. He had the usual twinkle in his eyes and he sat down across from her.

Another elf offered him a biscuit, which he happily accepted. "You know," he told her, "The world is a place of mystery, it's a place that not even I can completely comprehend. You think you know something or someone, and then they change suddenly. New elements are added to your life. Nothing can stay the same for too long, not completely." Luna nodded, he thought like she did, odd, different, and complicatedly. He continued, "Sometimes the people you think you know change. Sometimes, they change you. Some people you think are gone reappear, making you wonder, does anyone really leave?" He stood up, "That biscuit was delicious. Well a good evening to you, Miss Lovegood. You should head off to your dormitory soon."

Luna sat, sipping her hot chocolate late into the night, reading and having some not-so-serious conversations with the house elves. 'I don't want to change,' she found herself thinking when she finally slipped into bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. Sorry for not updating for so long, I went to Chicago for a week.

Chapter 6

Luna and Cedric were spread out on the dusty floor of the Hufflepuff room, pointing at stars out the tiny slit of a window that the room had. Luna told Cedric some stories behind the stars, well the muggle stories anyway. Long after their laughter had dissolved, they laid in what felt like a comfortable silence, but Luna still felt a need to break it.

"I remember you."

Cedric looked at her, "I remember you, too. After all, you've been coming here for nearly two months."

"No, I remember you from before that. When you went to school and were the Hogwarts Champion."

He sat in silence, listening patiently, a glaze steadily going over his eyes as if he were remembering the old days when he was still alive.

"You were nice. One of the few people who were kind to me."

Cedric shrugged slightly, a blush setting on his face, something he thought could never happen in his ghost state, but, it seemed that his whitish aura could turn into a darker shade of blue when he was embarrassed. Luna had told him that.

"Nice, nice, nice," she chanted softly to herself as if slipping off into a dreamlike state.

There weren't many nice people in her life. Ginny, Harry, and Cedric, they were all that she needed, she convinced herself happily, "Thank you," she whispered before falling into a deep but steady sleep. It wasn't just to Cedric she was saying thank you to, but anyone who helped someone else whenever it was needed. She was saying thank you to those who were kind and courageous, those who gave her strength, even when they had none to give.

A faint smile graced his perfectly shaped lips as he looked at her, his ghostly face yet again darkening. She looked like some sort of angel, pretty, but something that he wouldn't be able to touch, not even when he was alive. She was something else, she didn't belong in this world, and she seemed to belong to a race that had long since died out, leaving nothing but a single heir behind. He made a move to brush her wild blond hair out of her face so he could get a better look, but resisted, he didn't want to ruin the picture that the gods had placed before him. Besides that, he would freeze her if he did so. Instead, he grabbed the blanket off the bed and tucked it around the younger girl.

"One part salamander eyes. No, salamander, Luna, sal-a-man-der, not newt eyes. Luna will you listen to me! Put the newt eyes down and step away from the cauldron," Cedric shouted exasperatedly, this girl was too much of a hassle for his liking, nothing like Cho was. She would have known what a salamander eye looked like.

Luna did as she was told, but not before arguing, "Those are salamander eyes. Look at them!" She did not like it when he yelled at her and was compelled to yell back, though why she couldn't understand; it wasn't in her nature to yell that often.

He picked them up and grinned sheepishly, "Maybe these are salamander eyes."

"Told you," she replied and stuck her tongue out at the handsome ghost. 'My dad had an article on amphibians once and _I_ memorized it.

"You really need to get a life, Luna," Cedric teased, "Although, the articles in the _Quibbler_ are quite interesting. I particularly like the one about muggles actually being descendents of pigs. That was very interesting."

"Really," Luna thought out loud, "I didn't like it. I don't like the guy who wrote it, either. He's really mean."

Cedric shrugged, "But, you would also think that it would mean that wizards are also evolved from pigs, not from another planet, as the author suggested."

"Exactly, it made no sense."

Conversations between them had gone on like this for a while now, ever since Luna started bringing the _Quibbler_ and a few other books for him to read in the lonely tower. He shook his head to clear his mind, "Back to business. I think you've got potions down, what else do you need help with?"

"History, which is an extremely horrendous subject, in my opinion."

He groaned, "You just had to pick one of _my _worst subjects, didn't you?"

"It was unavoidable."

"It always is," he agreed with a slight smile. You just couldn't win against Luna; it was impossible. Opening a book, he pointed out certain facts that would probably end up on a future test or quiz, or, in other words, things that she should write down for studying later. Glancing at the parchment, he felt his eye twitch uncontrollably. She was doodling while he was lecturing! Here he was, using his valuable time to tutor her, and she had the nerve to doodle! Sure, he had forever to do most other things, but she should be more grateful. 'Then again, this is Luna who's doodling.' It was then that he realized that Luna was staring at him. A 'blush' rose to his cheeks and he looked away, "What?"

"You stopped giving me notes to write down," she was giving him an odd look he noticed when he finally dared to look back at her.

"You were doodling!"

She shrugged. 'Shouldn't you be feeling guilty right now!' "Well, explain yourself."

"I already know all that stuff. I just have trouble with dates."

"Well, why didn't you say so before?"

She refused to look at him, "I wanted to doodle."

"Doodle on your own time then," he said exasperatedly.

She didn't reply, only tried to throw a quill at him, but, sadly, her plan failed and the quill phased right through him.

Cho found herself roaming the empty corridors late at night. She was content with her life, she wasn't about to deny that fact, but she felt empty inside sometimes. Late at night she would gaze out of her window trying to figure out what was missing when it came to her. Cedric. She felt that if only she had been able to say goodbye she would feel less…guilty about his death.

She felt as though she had distracted him during the Tournament, using up time that he could have spent learning spells, anything to defend himself against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Saying goodbye would have made her feel as though it were OK to move on.

Returning to the common room, she heard voiced coming from near the fire. She was about to scold the couple, they were up way too late, but the voice of the male made her stop in her tracks. It sounded like Cedric but it couldn't be. He was dead. Her mind was just playing tricks on her after thinking about him for so long and being sleepy. The female voice was Luna Lovegood, if she was not mistaken, but whom was she talking to?

"Good night Luna," she heard him whisper as he stood up. Her throat constricted, "Cedric," she said in a hoarse whisper.

The ghost looked up in surprise and sunk through the floor. Cho turned around only to see Luna's foot going up to her dorm. She tried to call out, but it was too late and her voice wouldn't seem to work properly. She shook her head as the thought flitted through her mind that it had all been a dream, her imagination, brought on by the lack of sleep.

Luna was bent over a book when a shadow fell over her. "Hello Harry," she greeted warmly.

"Hey Luna. I've been meaning to talk to you. Think you can spare a minute?"

"As long as you finish before lunch I'm hungry and want to go search for the Crumplehorn Schnorlack."

"Of course. I was just wondering why you asked about Cedric the other day."

"No particular reason."

"Come on Luna, I know you had a reason."

"Not all secrets need to be shared, Harry."

A/N: I'm getting to where I like what I'm writing! Yes! But, that stuff won't be coming out for another couple of weeks. If you thought that Harry and Cedric were confusing you, just wait laughs evilly. Although, for what is yet to come, you'll probably hate me. But, it is all part of my master plan. Next weekend, I'm planning on going back to posting two chapters a week, too. Oh, and thank you for all the reviews… I still didn't think that I would get any. Keep on reviewing, please.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I, of course, do not own Harry Potter.

I thought that I should make it known that if I do not update for a week or two in the future, that I am working on one other story which I'm hoping to post soon. Unfortunately, I have a horrible habit of doing scenes out of order when it comes to one shots and am currently working on the first draft of the end and the final draft of the beginning. I haven't even started the middle. This chapter, finally, is not a filler chapter, I'm pretty much done with defining the characters, and it actually starts what I consider the main plot. I've written about a third of this story, give or take a little, and I have to say that I am quite happy with it. At first this fic was just a test to make sure that I could do a longer story without giving up, but now I'm having fun with it. Thank you for reviewing my story! I actually didn't think that anyone would because of the two main characters…although, I am thinking about changing my description for this story, I just kind of though of something quickly and typed it, but oh well. Enjoy, and please review. I do love constructive criticism; it helps me do better with my writing, so please, do not be afraid to point out my, no doubt many, mistakes.

Chapter 7

Dumbledore made his way up the dusty staircase. He noticed there was a lot less dust than only weeks before; Cedric had been getting a visitor. A visitor he knew by the name of Miss Luna Lovegood, and, if he was not mistaken, another Miss Cho Chang had seen him last night, although whether or not she actually believed that she saw him was yet to be determined. Portraits rarely lied, after all.

When he entered the room the young ghost boy was looking out his small window to the grounds below. A book was open in his hands entitled An Enigma of New Potions For Beginners in Enigmas: How to Defeat the Soon-To-Invade Aliens. One of Miss Lovegood's books, he assumed. Hogwarts's library had no book with that title that he knew of, something that he had to look into for it did look quite interesting and even a little bit muggliesh and he did love to look at the muggle point of view on things. The boy had obviously had been reading when something had caught his eye out of the window.

His observations told him that 'something' was the moon and he was rarely wrong when it came to observations. It seemed that he had a romantic to deal with, judging by the gaze of the ghost boy; it was the gaze that he had once had on his own face in his younger days while writing poetry to the pretty girls he tended to fall in love with back in those days. Cedric turned around and greeted him.

"How have you been Cedric," asked the slightly off-his-rocker old man.

"I have been fine, I guess, you?"

"Jolly good."

Dumbledore's look slightly hardened. He was serious after pleasantries when it was needed, and it was sorely needed. There were things that needed to be discussed. "Cedric you are a ghost now."

"I know," the boy said wistfully, remembering what it was like to live.

"Do you remember the contract you signed? You won't be given any second chances at life if the gods have anything to do with it."

"I know. It's just that I haven't talked to anyone my age in so long. I haven't talked to _anyone_ in a long time." He put extra emphasis on the word anyone.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "No one made you stay in this room hiding from the living. No one has even made you stay here at Hogwarts, you cold go anywhere you would you like."

"I like it here," he said definitely, this was one thing that would not change. Hogwarts had been his home since he was eleven years old and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. "Being out there would hurt too many people."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he told Cedric goodbye. "There is another girl who needs your attention right now, Cedric. She's confused and hurt."

Cedric nodded. He knew whom Dumbledore was talking about, and, saying farewell, he headed out the opposite wall. Dumbledore shook his head; he was a good kid.

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Cho was sitting up near the fire in the Ravenclaw common room when he found her. "Cho," he called to her; his voice was slightly stricken with fear. What would she do, or worse, what would she say?

She was prettier than she was when they were dating and obviously more emotional, from what he had heard. Tears were filling her eyes already. "Cedric," she whispered as she stood up and ran to him as if to embrace him, only to be met by a freezing cold blast and falling to the floor sobbing.

She looked at him. "You-you were dead."

"I still am dead," he whispered sadly.

She looked down, "Why- if," she didn't seem like she was able to make up her mind on what to say to him. The look of confusion that had adorned her features disappeared, "Why didn't you tell us you were still here?"

"I-I," he averted his gaze, "I thought it would cause a lot more pain than just letting you move on would."

"Damn it Cedric!" It was the first time he had ever heard her swear, "This hurts more. It hurts that you were the Hogwarts Champion and you couldn't even find the courage to come out and say that you were still around. It hurts that you have been wandering around Hogwarts this entire time and never did anything to contact me!"

"I thought that you would have moved on by now."

"I have moved on, Ced," she said, filled with exasperation, "Or, at least I'm trying to. This really isn't helping, you know!"

"If you want me to leave I will," he told her, slightly disappointed.

"No" stopped him, "I want to catch up on things. Now what have you been doing," she asked as they sat down in two overly stuffed armchairs.

"For the past couple of years- nothing. But, as you more than likely noticed, Luna found me and we have been talking."

"An extremely odd girl," she noted.

"But nice. And she's really sweet in her own weird way."

"I never said that oddness was a bad thing. Doesn't she like Harry or something? Harry Potter?"

An odd expression flitted across his face at the question causing Cho to lift an eyebrow, "Why would she like Harry? Did she say anything about him?"

Cho shook her head, "It's just a question, Ced. They hang out pretty often and I was wondering if there was anything between them. But, then again, she seems to hang around you a lot too, doesn't she? And everyone thought she liked Ron Weasley for a while, too."

"Weasley," Cedric questioned rather loudly in shock.

Cho grinned and shook her head. "It's nothing to get worked up over, Cedric. Just a passing fancy, I believe."

He had finally seemed to settle into his armchair when he asked, "How have you been Cho? I've heard a little, but not enough to draw conclusions."

"I've been fine, thanks," she said, a small smile gracing her lips, "I'm passing all my classes and have more friends than ever."

"I meant personal relationship wise."

An expression of shock spread over her features before she realized he must have asked Loony Luna a few things. "It's…hard Cedric. No relationships are perfect and so far nothing beats out the relationship that we had had. But, I'm getting there. You've probably heard that I dated Harry for a while," she paused, giving him enough time to nod that he knew, "That didn't work out. He didn't…he couldn't understand my paid. Well, he would understand me, he probably felt as much pain as I still do, if not more, but he didn't know how to comfort me."

Cedric nodded with understanding, "What about now?"

"Now…I'm dating Roger Davis. It's true that I had started dating him to make Harry jealous, I was angry after all that he had broken up with me. But, now, I'm beginning to really like him for who he is."

He stood up, "Thank you for talking to me."

Cho stood up, too, "Please, can I still talk to you sometimes. I can't stand the thought of you not being in my life so soon after you reappeared."

"Yes. If you want to talk, come on Tuesdays to the second staircase near the library where we used to meet."

She nodded, "I'm also supposing that it was Lovegood that had showed you where our common room was, since I had too much House pride to show that to another from a different House."

He smirked mysteriously, "No, actually…I have my ways to find my way around this old castle."

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"Fine, I can't believe that I'm telling you this, but Ron has an unexplainable need to pluck his nose hairs in order to 'look good'," Harry said while trying to deal with a fit of laughter.

They had been playing this game for a couple of hours, Luna and him. He had sat down by her when he had spotted her near the lake, despite the cool fall weather. They would roll 2 dice in a small handmade paper circle. If the sum of the numbers was even, you had to tell the other person, or people if you played in a group, a secret about yourself. If your sum was an odd number, you told something about a friend or roommate or anyone else. It was actually quite fun and he was glad she had introduced the game to him. He was starting to wonder if there were trick dice because there had been only one or two even sums so far and they had been playing for quite a while.

"Odds…hmm," she thought, "I've seen Pansy Parkinson pick her nose three times this year alone and I'm not even in any of her classes!"

Harry rolled over laughing. "Okay, I got evens. Hmmm…I… erm…I think that Ginny always looks like an angel."

"She _is_ an angel."

Harry shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground and whispered to himself, "I know." Although she was certain that she wasn't supposed to, she heard the quiet comment and allowed a small secretive smile to grace her lips.

"Odds…Ron Weasley is in love with Hermione."

"Seriously?" Harry rolled his eyes, "Duh, its obvious, I should have known. They are kind of dysfunctional though, aren't they?"

"They are extremely clueless."

Harry laughed, "I bet you 10 galleons that they never realize that they are in love."

"Harry, I do not bet, it is immoral and wrong."

Harry grinned, "Goody two- shoes." He paused, "Never mind. You _have _broken rules on many, many occasions."

"In that case I shall raise your bet to 15 galleons and we have a deal."

"Deal." They shook hands.

"So," Harry asked in a slightly secretive voice, "Do you know if Ginny's dating anyone?"

"I don't think that she is at the moment."

A satisfied grin spread over his face, "Good, good. Well, I must say that I am quite famished and it _is_ dinnertime. Can I have the honor of escorting you to the Great Hall and perhaps the Gryffindor table?"

She grinned, "You may."

Joking around they made their way through the grounds and into the old castle. Upon sitting down, Harry couldn't help but feel he still knew so little about Luna. He wanted to be her friend, but she had told him no actual secrets. It didn't help that she never seemed to get angry, either. She just didn't care. Maybe if she got angry or cared, she'd let more slip than the fact that she too could see the thresals; it was a fact that she had admitted back nearly a year ago and she didn't seem inclined to let anymore slip. Besides the fact that it was her mother who had died.

Dumbledore stood up, silencing the student's chatter and making Harry come out of his thoughts rather quickly. All attention was on him and his jolly smile and his eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. "I hope you are having a wonderful evening." There were murmurs of 'yes professor' and 'of course'. After the mumbling stopped he continued. "We are holding a Halloween Ball. A masquerade if you will," excited whispers filled the room, "As before, only fourth years or older will be able to attend the ball," the younger students groaned while the upperclassmen smirked, "unless, of course, a younger student is asked by an older student."

Halfway through Dumbledore's speech on rules and proper conduct and such things, Ginny poked Luna in the side, "Hey are you going to go?"

Luna shook her head, "Halloween is the only night that winged Barmamouses came out. They positively adore the moon at that time."

Ginny grinned, "I'm sorry, you'll have to wait until next year to see your winged Barmamouses, I'm making you go to the ball."

Luna stared at Ginny. "No one will want me there. I'll only ruin their night!"

"I want you there! Stop pitying yourself, it's really annoying."

"I'm only stating the facts," Luna said pointedly.

"I'll find you a date!"

Luna stopped and looked at her dearest friend almost sadly, the girl didn't really understand what Luna was saying, "Must I really go, Gin?"

"You must."

"I do not want a date. A date would ruin my mood."

"Oh, alright, I won't find you a date if you really don't want one. But, you're go, right?"

"Yes Ginny Weasley. I will go to this ball of which you speak."

Harry motioned for them to shut up; Dumbledore was looking right at them.

A/N: Yup, I know. This chapter may not seem to important right now, but it is. And, I know, a ball is so cliché, but, it is only like one chapter, two tops. Also, I have no idea if you'll be angry since I added Cho in, and she will have a semi-important part by the way, but she is not whom I was talking about earlier when I said that you may be angry. And no, Cho is not one of my favorite characters. She's at the bottom of my list with Lucious Malfoy, in fact. I have no idea why she's even in the story…she isn't actually that bad to write about seeing as she's no longer in her constantly crying state. I'm counting this as two chapters because I really did merge two chapters that I wrote together. Both of them were a little too short for my liking. Please Review!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other of the Harry Potter universe characters. If I did, things would probably be a whole lot weirder. Read, Review, and Enjoy.

Chapter 8

Neville shifted from foot to foot, slowly turning a bright red. He knew that Ginny liked Harry, but he wanted to go to a ball with her again. The last one he went to, well the only one they had, and he had had a lot of fun with her. The previously mentioned girl was standing in front of him, a questioning look in her eyes, both of her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she was shifting her weight around until she was swaying slightly in aggravation. "Just spit it out already Neville!"

"Erm…uh… I was wondering," after a few more moments of stuttering he seemed to have gained more confidence. She wasn't exactly running away even though she seemed to know exactly what he was going to ask, "Do… do you want to go to the ball with me?"

Ginny grinned, "I'll think about it and let you know by Friday."

Without waiting to hear his positively delighted reply, she took off running out of the common room, down the hall, and then she proceeded to bustle into the library, but not without jumping a few staircases, of course. Her plan was working, however slowly. "Luna," the girl gasped, slightly out of breath, "Guess who asked me to the ball."

"Harry."

"No, silly, Neville did. Can you believe it?" she plopped down into a chair, earning a few stares from her fellow classmates and a glare from Madam Pince.

Luna stared openly at her friend. She was actually shocked by this turn of events; what had happened to her crush on Harry? "Not to be mean," she carefully inquired, "but why are you excited about going to the ball with Neville?"

"He's sort of cute, funny, maybe he's not the smartest guy in the book, but that's OK, he's not exactly dumb either. Can you think of any reasons that I shouldn't go with him?"

The truth was, Luna could think of a couple reasons, and all pointed to the fact that Ginny was- "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

Ginny abruptly stopped going on down her list of qualities. The qualities may not have been lies, but some of them he didn't quite measure up to by Ginny's standards. "Promise," the pretty red head said in what seemed like desperation, "Promise me that you wont get mad."

"I will make no such agreement," she said with a cold look, "It may be a promise I cannot keep. And _I_, Miss Weasley, am not a liar." 'Often.'

"Luna," Ginny said, angering, "Are you insinuating that I am lying?"

"Yes." Her answers never failed to be abrupt and to the point when it came to some matters that may turn out to be quite serious.

A look of sadness washed over her face, "I wasn't lying, Luna," she said quietly, "Stretching the truth a little, but I was not lying."

Luna turned and looked at her friend, studying her face before asking in a hushed tone, "What...how…why Neville? Why are you going to the ball with Neville?"

"I'm not yet," she replied miserably, "I told him I'd give him an answer by the end of the week."

"Are you going to say yes?"

Ginny was suddenly filled with determination and replied, "Yes."

"Why?"

"Because," Ginny groaned, "I'm in love with Harry. You know it, Hermione knows it, and I even think that bloody Draco Malfoy knows it. The entire school knows I'm in love with Harry…except for him. He is so clueless sometimes. But, that's what I love about him. I'm in love with everything about him. What should be considered flaws don't seem like flaws when it comes to him. Everything is just meshed so perfectly in him. He's perfect…for me. He just doesn't know it."

At a long pause, Luna thought she was supposed to talk to Ginny about her decision. She was supposed to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be all right. She was supposed to do something, anything, to maker her feel better. But, not only did she feel slightly disgusted by her fried, when she tried to talk, she cut her off by holding up a silencing hand. "I took what you said to heart when we were talking about love a while back. About knowing when you're truly in love and all. I know that I'm in love with him. I have to do something about it; I can't do what I've been doing for years; I can't sit around and wait for him to come to me."

"And Neville is that something," Luna asked quietly.

"You're angry," Ginny pointed out, not all that surprised truth to be told.

"Darn strait I am," the blonde girl yelled, resisting the urg to swear.

"I'm sorry Luna," the girl's eyes filled with unshed tears. "I'm so sorry. But this is the only way to get him to notice me."

"How is Neville going to make Harry jealous? What are you going to _do _with Neville to make Harry jealous?"

"I'm not going to _do_ anything with him. Besides dance, that is. Neville is in his year. Neville is his friend. Nothing else will make him notice me like I want him to. It's all I could think of."

"I'm angry at you, Ginny. I'm not going to act like I'm not, but, I guess all I can say is good luck, since I can obviously not pursued you to not go through with this plan of yours."

"Thank you."

As Luna walked to the library the next week, reading _The Quibbler_, she heard footsteps tap quickly and distinctly against the stone floors. "Luna," someone called. She turned around only to discover what she had expected was true. Harry was rushing toward her at a quick and steady pace.

His green eyes were bright with excitement. His black hair was matted to his forehead with swear, no doubt from quidditch practice, and a lazy grin graced his mouth.

"Hey," he greeted as he finally caught up to her. For a second she saw what Ginny must see everyday, a handsome, popular boy who was sweeter than candy. But, that was gone in a flash, nearly as quickly as it had come, and he returned to being Harry. Simple Harry of the Golden Trio. 'Stupid hormones,' she cursed herself, 'Pomponus Snails must be in the area.'

"How have you been?"

"Just wonderful, although I haven't seen any signs of Pomponus Snails anywhere, have you?"

"No, I haven't. I was wondering, though…are you going to the ball?"

"I believe that Ginny is forcing me to go."

"Well…erm, do you…do you have a-a date?" He somehow managed to stutter out.

"Nope."

"Would you- I mean, erm, do you want to, you know, go to the ball…with me?" He breathed a sigh of relief. The worst was over.

Luna looked at him hard and square in the eye, "You do realize who you are asking, don't you? Loony Luna _is _my nickname. I'm giving you a chance to back out of your ever so wonderful proposition."

"Yup, I know who I'm asking to the ball, and, no, I'm not about to back out," he stated, bursting with confidence suddenly.

"Then, sure Harry, I will accompany you to the ball."

"Good."

A/N: I was trying to make Luna seem more like a real person through this whole chapter. I guess that's what I've been trying to do this whole fiction. I'm not trying to change her character, I'm just trying to make her seem more relatable and human like, while still retaining her weirdness. Oh, and I have to admit, the two girls who are going to be kind of sharing the 2nd heroine part I actually do not like at all. That's right, I'm going to be writing about Ginny and Cho in a good way because bashing just is not cool. I don't really hate them, I guess, I just don't in particular like them. Yeah, that's the correct term. Sorry for taking so long to update, nothing ever goes how I schedule it in my head. Please read and review. Criticism is accepted and encouraged, but, please, don't flame me for having a strange couple, that is not only not cool, but it is stupid. (Not that I've been flamed yet…just preparing, I've seen people get flamed for a lot less strange couples than this.)


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters associated with it. Please read, review, and enjoy.

Chapter 9

Cedric looked at Luna in confusion. She _herself_ looked confused and lost in thought. Something had happened that she wasn't telling him about… something he had a feeling he wasn't going to like. Watching her sit in the small amount of moonlight, with eyes glazed because of something he couldn't quite see, and her hair spilling freely over her shoulders, he felt something inside him give a little lurch and he _thought_ he felt the cold stone floor beneath his hand, but it was gone instantly. It was yet another memory of life…the ability to touch freely.

Luna started to doodle in the dust, completely caught up in her own little world. 'No,' he thought, 'Her world is huge, it has its own people, its own everything.' That was one of the things that Cedric had been contemplating in the lonely hours of the day. Luna's world was a place that he had yet to discover fully; he had only had little glimpses of it. He got the feeling that in her world no one was ever angry. In her world the forces of good and bad were evenly separated like black and white. There was no gray. There was no in-between. That was why she forgave people so easily, no matter what they had done, no matter how much they hated her. She felt that with enough help that they might walk in the light. Either that, or that they would accept her into their world of good, but he knew that she was anything but part of the dark.

He moved one of his hands above hers, creating the impression of an icy cold wind. She looked up at him, questioningly.

"What's on your mind?"

She was abrupt, as always, "I can't dance."

He laughed, "Why do you need to dance?"

Pausing, she replied, "Harry asked me to the ball."

A short pain spread through his nonexistent body and he felt himself shaking slightly. 'Why am I shaking?' "Do you want me to teach you…how to dance?"

Luna nodded, a smile spreading across her face. But, although he wanted to smile, he had bigger things on his mind. "How am I going to teach you to dance if I can't touch you?"

Luna's smile now looked goofily big, "I've been doing some research." He lifted an eyebrow, which she thoughtfully ignored, "There are a couple of spells that we could try. We won't be able to touch, but we can come extremely close without you freezing me and putting me into a semi shocked state."

"How'd you get these spells?"

"My father. I asked him a couple of questions about ghosts and explained that I was doing an experiment on how to touch them, and he gave me a few pointers. Mother would have been more elaborate, but I have to settle for the advice that I got. Then, doing some research on my own in old _Quibbler_ issues and the library gave me more information.

"So you made these spells?"

"Yup."

"How does it-"

"Creating spells is in the family blood. That's what I want to do when I graduate. Well, that, and writing for the _Quibbler_, of course."

"I guess I have no choice but to trust you."

"You're already dead. It's not like you can get hurt too badly, Mr. Diggory."

He lifted both eyebrows up and grinned, "That's what they all say."

"If they all say it, it must be true, right?"

He rolled his eyes. She hadn't noticed his sarcasm. They were both standing by now. She took a step closer to him, causing him to take a step back, yet again blushing, "What- what are you doing," he managed to stutter out.

"Casting the spell."

"Oh."

There was more silence and Luna yet again stepped forward, he didn't take a step back. "Obakita si no Fundo Luminious to Tezawari." She chanted at first whispering, then slowly gaining more confidence. Finally, after enough time fore Cedric to nearly lose hope, a bright light emitted from the end of her wand, washing over him. He still didn't feel a thing.

"Hold out your hand." He did as he was told. She lowered her hand over his and it didn't pass through his body. Some sort of shield had formed over both of their bodies from the spell. Luna smiled at him goofily, "Can you teach me how to dance now?"

He found himself grinning back, "It would be my pleasure. Put one hand on my shoulder, no, Luna your left hand, and give me your other hand…"

'She's not half bad,' he thought to himself.

Ginny glared at Luna on their walk to Hogsmeade. "How could you accept going to the ball with him, Luna?"

"He asked me and I said yes," Luna grinned evilly, "I'm considering it _my_ part in your evil scheme. I'm going to make sure he doesn't ask another girl to the ball. Not that it'd matter, I like Harry and would have accepted him even if you didn't have the 'plan'"

"So, it's not Harry that you like?"

"I don't like anyone in the way that you mean."

"Well I thought-" a confused look came onto Ginny's face.

"You thought what?"

"I thought," she paused, trying to find the words to express her thoughts, "I thought you liked someone. You seem to be taking the idea of romance better than you had before."

"I don't like anyone," Luna said with a small, sad smile. 'She's in denial,' Ginny thought to herself, she just wondered who it was and if she knew him.

She recognized the sign for the dress robe shop and let out a happy squeal, grabbing Luna's hand and dragging her into the shop. There wasn't a wide selection, not like at Diagon Alley, but it had enough choices for several Hogwarts student populations. Instantly, both girls headed over to the sale racks, but it was obvious that other girls had been there and found what was actually worth buying and looking halfway decent in.

They mobbed to the rest of the items, laughing at how ridiculous some of the robes were, gaping at the pretty ones that were way out of their price range, and just having a good time. Although dresses weren't her forte, Luna found herself trying on more things than she had ever in her life, but nothing was right, as Ginny put it. They were too big, too small, too colorful, and too black. None of them fit right.

Near closing time, Ginny found her robes. They were a soft pink; embroider with red roses and thin, spidery vines. It had a low neckline, but not too low. As they walked back to Hogwarts, sucking on Honeydukes sweets, Ginny exclaimed about how wonderful her purchase was and how Harry wasn't going to be able to take his eyes off her. Luna noted a little disdainfully that Ginny didn't seem to realize that Harry was going to the ball with _her._

A/N: I hope that you enjoyed that last chapter. I am so happy. It's almost the end of the school year and I can focus on writing more than I do now. I can also draw and swim. Yes, I was defiantly working toward at least a little Luna jealousy during that last chapter. Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters associated with it. Please read, review, and enjoy.

Explaining the Japanese-ness of Luna's spell: to me spells seem kind of like a wizard's language, and not all languages in all countries are the same. So not all spells will be the same in all countries, people will have different words that go with their language for a spell. Yes, Luna is not Japanese, but in this story Luna has traveled to many places with her father and would have learned at least a couple spells. Some spells other countries may not have. I also mixed a little bit of Spanish and a little Hawaiian with the more Latin word, too.

Chapter 10

Classes were boring as usual. Before lunch Luna had to head to the bathroom to clean all the spit wads out of her hair. Some Slytherins in her last class had taken it upon themselves to continue with the tradition of bullying Luna. A couple girls checking their hair in the mirror were talking in barely hearable whispers.

"Yeah, Harry is going with her!"

"That's Luna Lovegood? I thought that she'd be a little bit prettier."

Both girls started giggling, "I thought he'd ask Ginny."

"He was going to, but then that Neville guy asked her out. Harry's just is using her because she's Ginny's best friend,"

The girls left the bathroom, leaving Luna staring at her reflection. _He's using her…_

The world seemed to be spinning as she exited the bathroom. She was left staring into grayish blue eyes on the stone floor. Draco Malfoy. He slightly pushed her out of the way and yelled, "Watch where you're going Loony Lovegood."

He shook his platinum blonde hair, gathered his things, and headed down the corridor, no doubt to his house, but not without sending her one last glare. Shrugging off the strange encounter, she chose to skip lunch and headed to her dormitory. No one was in the common room, although she heard a few girls laughing and talking in the rooms above her own. When she got to her room, she was surprised to find a slightly big, brown package on her bed.

Slowly and carefully she opened the package. For all she knew it would explode, some people had sent her gifts like that before. But, instead, she found soft blues and silvers making up the colors of soft fabric. She lifted the fabric up to reveal dress robes and a small mask. A note was on her bed. '_I heard that you may need dress robes for the ball. I think that these should fit- CD'_ 'Cedric Diggory…thank you,' she thought to herself. True, she didn't care much for clothes, but she knew that this must have been both expensive and made of rare fabrics. Her trademark goofy smile made its way to her face.

Cedric could practically see the excitement that hung in the air of the opening of the ball below. He sat watching through the railings on a third floor staircase. It had been a while since his first ball. The last ball that Hogwarts had hosted had been both his first and his last. He wondered offhandedly when Cho would enter, if she would look as pretty as she had before. He wondered what Luna would look like; would she wear the robes he had sent or had she found better ones?

He didn't have to wait long to find out. Ron's little sister entered down the cascading stairs attached to Longbottom's arm. She looked like an angel; soft, like if you touched her she would break. Next came Granger, her hair was piled high and yellow robes, hanging just off her shoulders made quite the impression on the male population.

Cascading dark hair, crème robes, and a lithe body came next. Cho Chang, smiling to Davies, whom was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. 'She looks beautiful,' Cedric thought somewhat wistfully, remembering the days when they had dated. But, his self-pitying thoughts were stopped in their tracks. Harry came down the stairs, laughing with his date. He was laughing wit Luna. But it wasn't jealousy that made his face darken; it was Luna.

She looked…gorgeous. That was the only way to describe her. He had thought that the robes would fit; he just didn't realize how well they would fit. Unlike Ginny, she didn't look like she would break, and unlike Hermione, she kept her body completely covered. The material swirled around her feet and her mask added an air of mystery. She looked happy… with Harry. Luna had somehow seen him and gave him a quick grin before turning her attention back to Harry. Something inside him jolted. 'I really have to stop that.'

Harry couldn't say he wasn't surprised. Pure shock had run through him when he saw Luna. He had half suspected that she would turn up in her school robes and her butter beer cork necklace. The opening of the ball started. Unlike at his previous ball, this one had all the couples starting, as to not put too much pressure on a certain group of unsuspecting victims.

Yes, Luna looked beautiful, there was no denying that, but he couldn't take his eyes of Ginny. Somehow, he thought that this was all some elaborate plot. Ginny going with Neville and looking so gorgeous; for a while whenever he saw Gin she was always wearing a smirk and there was an evil glint in her eyes. What the plot was for he didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

Luna was getting herself a drink. At the moment, Harry and Ginny were dancing together; they had been dancing together for the last five songs. Luna would have been lying to say she wasn't a little jealous. It was her first ball and she wanted someone to dance with. She bumped into someone and her eyes were met yet again with cold gray ones. "Watch it Lovegood," Malfoy practically yelled at her, Pansy Parkinson, who was latched onto his arm, stuck her tongue out in disdain.

"C'mon, Draco, we don't want to be around scum, do we?" She asked in sarcasm and a rather loud and annoying giggle.

"No, we don't," he replied, heading into the opposite direction of the table, but not without shooting her a backward glance and an infuriating smirk.

'Stupid Flabbleworms! They must be in the area, making me and that horrible person run into each other all over the place. I'll have to talk to Dumbledore about getting them cleared out, they could be bad for the chemistry of this school!' She momentarily forgot her dateless state and without a backwards glance she headed out into the small garden that had been created inside. She sat on a bench, watching couples walk by, whispering, hugging, and kissing. "Boo," someone whispered behind her.

"Hello Cedric," she felt him sit down next to her.

"You look very pretty tonight," he told her.

"So do you," he didn't pay attention to the odd comment for once.

"Are you having fun?"

"Yes, although I do wish to dance more."

"Why can't you?"

She gave him an exasperated glance, "I thought we went over this. I'm Loony Luna. What sane guy wants to dance with me?"

"Harry did."

Luna grinned, "I don't think that Harry's completely sane, to tell the truth."

"I agree completely," he paused slightly, "Well, I'm not completely sane either so, do you want to dance?"

"That would be rather jolly wouldn't it?"

He motioned for her to follow him. They ended up near a window with a small amount of light covering the ground. She whispered the spell. As they danced, Cho watched them, in slight shock.

A/N: Hermione's 'showing skin' wasn't that much, just more than she would have normally.

Made his face darken- here I meant it got red- blush-like.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters associated with it. Please read, review, and enjoy.

Chapter 11

Their laughter stung. She was soaking wet, sitting in the shallow end of the Lake. As she tried to wipe the seaweed from her face and escape the freezing cold water, two more boys pushed her back into the murky depths, laughing harder when she cracked open her knee on a sharp rock that was hidden under the sand. Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them back.

Malfoy watched the scene with unfolded disgust. How could her own housemates do this to her? Did they know nothing about pride for one's house? Although he felt like he should be laughing along with the Ravenclaws, he couldn't bring himself to. This was just way too wrong. Groaning, he got up from his bench and walked over to them as if to join the group in their fun. Instead, he took his wand and dug it into the leader of the group's neck. "Scram. I'll take it from here."

The Ravenclaws looked at him in surprise, and then grinned at the thought of what the Slytherin Prince would do to her. In the end, they ended up backing away in fear until they were gone from sight. He turned his attention to the sopping wet girl sitting in front of him. "You seem to get yourself into all kinds of trouble don't you, Loony. You're almost as bad as Potter."

He offered her a hand. She looked at it like it might bite her or strangle her or just cause some sort of bodily harm. "Something wrong, Loony?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her, a smirk returning to his face, "I don't bite…hard.'

Was he…joking around with Loony Lovegood? He nearly hit himself with the mere thought of it. She hesitated before placing her hand in his. Both felt a strange bolt of electricity and Draco found himself staring into Luna's eyes. But, when she blinked, the magic was lost and he accidentally dropped her back into the Lake with a huge splash. He wouldn't even bring himself to apologize, instead, he just told her, "Learn how to protect yourself, Lovegood, nobody's going to do it for you." With that he stalked away.

Luna couldn't help but retort, "You just did." Although she didn't realize it, he had heard and his ears were slowly turning a deep shade of red.

* * *

A sharp pain went through her shoulder as the sharp stone met its mark. Laughter followed as she staggered back, tripping over a stone and falling onto her back. "Need any help," a tall boy with long brown hair asked, offering a hand. But, when she accepted and was helped up, the same boy slammed her into a nearby tree. She winced in pain; there would surely be a mark there in a few hours. When she fell onto her stomach, groaning in pain and clutching her mouth that was bleeding from a tooth lost when she was punched in the face.

The group of both Slytherins and a few Hufflepuffs proceeded to gather around her and kick her. Someone had a spike on his or her boot and it was puncturing her skin. Suddenly, someone yelled, "Stop!"

Through swollen eyes, she saw a familiar looking platinum blonde boy advancing on the group, and he did not look happy. As if covering up for what was obvious to her as worry, he coolly let out, "Why waste your time on someone like her? She's obviously lower than dirt."

There was a murmur of agreement as the group slowly backed off, crowding around the boy like he was some sort of god. Now, they seemed embarrassed that they had even thought of acknowledging a creature like her. The boy led the group away, talking about how he beat the crap out of Harry Potter or something like that.

The thought of sleep seemed so good to her now. As drowsiness slipped over her, she heard someone calling her name. But, the thought of answering the call never came to mind and she fell completely into deep slumber.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, Luna found herself in the Hospital Wing. She let out a groan, 'What happened?'

Her head felt fuzzy and heavy. Sharp pain was shooting through her arms and legs and she could feel bandages wrapped tightly around her midsection. Looking around she suddenly became aware of the head resting facedown on her bed, coppery hair splayed in a splay of directions. "Luna," the girl mumbled before bursting into sobs.

She ran a hand comfortingly through Ginny's hair. The girl's head shot up and her face broke into a shaky grin. Nearly making Luna scream in surprise, the girl jumped on her friend, clutching her in a happy hug. Breaking it off and holding the girl at the shoulders, she asked in anger, "Who were the bastards who did this to you?"

Luna shook her head, "Just some…nobody. I don't know; I didn't get a good look at their faces," she lied. She didn't want Ginny to worry about her. She was her only friend besides Cedric and Harry.

"Well…who made them leave? How did he or she or they or whoever make them leave you alone?"

A flash of platinum hair went through her mind, but she shook her head. "I don't know."

'Who saved me,' she asked herself silently, although no answers came forth.

At a sudden burst of the large Hospital Wing door, Harry, Neville, Ron, and Hermione rushed in, bursting with questions, anger, and happiness, making one weird combination. Luna grinned to herself, they might not have been her friends, per se, but they were there for her.

A/N: Whew…another chapter done. I feel bad for doing all these bad things to Luna, but it had to be done. Sadly, this chapter was rather short, but oh well nothing else came to me. Please, read, review, and enjoy. Constructive criticism is appreciated.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters associated with it.

I just want to say in response to a couple of reviews: suicide is the weakest way to get out of a situation a) Luna is not weak-hearted and b) it just would not be part of her personality in any possible way. Read, enjoy, and review.

Oh, and about the change from the ball, I just couldn't think of any more to write for it, so the Cho looking out the window scene was the last scene for the ball. But, small details of things that may have happened after that will appear, so it won't be a complete mystery.

Chapter 12

The wind blew through his hair. Cheers filled the air from below. He had never been this excited in his life. The broom felt cold and sleek, yet oddly comfortable, under him; how far or how high he could go seemed like an unimaginable distance. There was nothing to stop him from going to the Moon or Mars or maybe even Pluto, nothing except this game of Quidditch. The last game of the year and overall everyone's excitement ran high. Gryffindors against Slytherins. Or, as he saw it, good versus evil.

He saw it. The golden snitch. Both seekers chased it down, Malfoy against him. The other boy smirked devilishly and tried to bump Harry off his broom, but his plan failed and he ended up falling to his inevitable defeat. The snitch was in hand, its cold metal feel made him shiver in delight. This was it. This was his dream. Cheers filled the stands; the sound was almost deafening. His feet touched the ground for only seconds before being lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd that had gathered on the field.

But all he could see was a head of long red hair coming towards him. 'Ginny,' he thought and, without knowing how he even got to where she was, he gathered her in his arms and kissed her like no tomorrow. Then she smiled and seemed to fade out of existence saying, "Harry it's time to get up. If you don't get up now I'll throw a bucket of water on you."

He opened his eyes only to find himself staring into those of Ron's, "Aaaahhh," he screamed and Ron jumped back and screamed as if in return.

"Bloody hell, Harry," the red-haired boy yelled, clearly shaken, "Did you have a bad dream or something?"

"No," Harry said carefully, "It wasn't exactly…bad."

Ron gave his friend an odd look, but didn't ask right away; he could always find out later. "Why did you wake me up," Harry asked groggily.

"You told me to. Last night, you know, so you don't miss breakfast again."

Harry shook his head, "Oh yeah."

There was a few moments of awkward silence before Ron threw a pillow at him and yelled, "Hurry up and get dressed!"

Harry complied with his friend's demand, shaking his dark messy hair into something semi-neat. Ron rolled his eyes; Harry always seemed to look like a dog when he did that. "I'll meet you in the common room. Hurry up!"

"Alright," was his muffled reply as he was putting on a red sweater at the time.

* * *

The Great Hall was packed that morning making both Harry and Ron wish they had played a game of Wizard's Chess before coming down so the crowds could thin out a little. But, luckily, Ron had spotted Hermione waving her arms frantically to them from the far end of the Gryffindor table. From the looks on the faces of those surrounding her, Hermione had been annoying her housemates with one lecture or another.

"Hey, 'Mione," they greeted as they took a seat. Hermione nodded before turning back to Dean Thomas, continuing what sounded like a lecture on completing one's own homework. Both boys felt like snickering at the look of pure horror on the other boy's face; no doubt he had tried to bribe Hermione into doing some paper. Their mirth only intensified when the boy turned to them mouthing a silent, 'Help!'

Ron rolled his eyes, "Lay off it Hermione."

He was suddenly overtaken with fear as Hermione turned her dark look to Ron. Harry could swear that there was fire in her eyes and the air became suddenly hotter. "What were you saying, Ron?"

"I-um…er."

While they were arguing Harry took the time to glance around the Great Hall. Finally his gaze landed on Luna. Everyone around her tried to get as far away from her as possible, resulting in two seats being open between her and anyone near her. But, she seemed oblivious to the surrounding area as she read a magazine, no doubt _The Quibbler_. Slightly shrugging, he stood up and headed over to the girl, ignoring Ron's protests of being left alone with Hermione.

"Hey Luna," he greeted as he sat down; ignoring the stares he got from her housemates.

The girl looked up with a slightly surprised expression. "Hello, Harry."

"Are you reading _The Quibbler_?"

"Yes. There is quite an interesting article in here about vampires actually being allergic to bees." There were a few moments of silence when Luna went back to reading and Harry gazed at her intently. She glanced up. "Was there something that you wanted or something I can do for you?"

"Erm, yes to the first one," he grew uncomfortable and shifted in his seat, "I'm sorry for ditching you at the ball. I just don't know what happened."

"It's alright Harry."

Guilt still racked his brain, "I tried to find you after dancing with Ginny a couple times, but you were gone, not that I blame you…I would have left, too."

"I understand," she smiled at him, "I figured that you would want to dance with Ginny anyway. You were planning on asking her to go to the ball in the first place, right?"

Groaning he nodded yes, "But- listen- I heard the rumors that I was only using you to get closer to Ginny, but that's not true. I genuinely wanted to go with you and hadn't even thought about Ginny when asking you to the ball. All of the stuff that happened there just kind of happened."

"I understand. Besides, I had fun, too, even if it wasn't with you."

"So you forgive me?"

"I was never angry at you."

He smiled warmly, "I kind of figured that. It's part of your personality." Although he knew he shouldn't be, he was still quite embarrassed about what he was going to ask next, "Have you talked to Ginny lately?"

Luna smiled again and Harry got the feeling she knew what was coming up, "Yes. We are friends, Harry."

"I know, but for some reason I thought you were fighting," he shook his head, "I guess I was wrong. But, I was, erm," he berated himself, this was not the time to be stuttering, "Well, I was –er- wondering if she, Ginny, that is, has said anything about me?"

Luna's smile grew even more and her eyes began to slightly twinkle with devilish charm he didn't know she possessed, but she shook her head, "No. She's been really caught up with schoolwork and the Quidditch team. Plus, we have OWLs coming up and Hermione suggested that we should start studying."

Snorting, Harry replied, "Hermione would. I think she actually started studying during our fourth year."

Ignoring his comment, she went on, "Harry, if you like her, just ask her out."

"So you think I have a chance," was his hopeful question.

"Maybe," her eyes twinkled even more, slightly reminding him of Dumbledore or the Santa Claus songs he was often hearing lately, "I'll put in a good word for you."

She turned the page of her magazine, expecting Harry to leave, but he still sat there. Getting kind of nervous, she asked, "Was there anything else?" 'What if he knows about Cedric?' She didn't know how he would know, but if he did there could be some serious consequences.

Softly he asked, "Who beat you up?"

Not expecting that, she stared in surprised, "I already told Ginny that I didn't know."

"You're lying," he shook his head, "Luna, we're friends. We all want to help you, that is, me, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny, but you won't let us. Please just tell me who it was. If it makes you feel better, I won't go after them," 'Yet,' he added silently.

Luna shook her head, "It's my problem, Harry, not yours. I don't want to get you involved."

"Tell me," he ordered. This was one thing he was not going to let slide. No one beat up his friends.

Taking a long glance at him, she sighed, "That group of Ravenclaws there," she pointed down the table to some seemingly normal kids, "And a bunch of Slytherins. Some fifth, sixth, and seventh years, I think."

"Thanks for telling me Luna," he realized that the fact that she actually told him was special. It meant she trusted him. He smiled sadly, "I'll leave you to your magazine."

Luna's slightly sad face became a goofy grin, "Good, since this **is** _The Quibbler's_ newest issue. And remember my advice. If you like her, ask her out."

"I will. I'll see you around."

"Goodbye Harry."

* * *

Cho was sitting on the floor of the corridor when Cedric found her. Quickly he fazed through the wall behind her and whispered a soft "Boo" in her ear. The girl jumped and let out a muffled scream before turning around and glaring at him full in the face. "Don't do that," she screeched in anger.

The ghost just smirked, "What do you want Cho?"

Now it was her turn to smirk to the boy's confusion, "So… did you have a fun time at our ball?"

He raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

"You know. Dancing…with Luna."

If Cho didn't know he was a ghost she would have sworn she saw him blush.

"What about it?" Now he sounded guarded. Cho couldn't help but think he was fun to tease.

"Oh, you know…the fact that you, oh, I don't know, like her."

His eyes narrowed, "What are you talking ab-"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Cho said completely seriously as she started to walk away. As if it was an afterthought she turned around and smirked again, "Luna looked pretty by the way. I think you noticed at her grand entrance to the ball." With that she spun around and ran down the corridor, leaving a glaring Cedric Diggory behind.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the copyrighted characters. Read, enjoy, and review!

Chapter 13

* * *

Draco ran a hand through his platinum blond hair as he continued to read his book in one of the most comfortable seats the library had to offer. Unfortunately his mind was not on his book and his eyes wandered across the library. A few fellow Slytherins, whom were a few years younger than him, gazed at him openly, eyes filled with blatant adoration. After seeing that he was looking at him, they blushed and burst into fits of giggles. 'They are not worthy to be called Slytherins,' he thought with disdain. Slytherins always kept their cool. He continued searching the library for new faces when he caught sight of a certain crazy Ravenclaw girl struggling with her stack of books. He resisted the urge to get up and help her; it was not in his nature to help people, especially not strange girls whom were _not_ in his house.

Deciding that nothing was worth his time and he had no excuse for being distracted, he turned back to his book. The pleasant silence that had settled over the library was broken by the sound of a stack of books being dropped onto a table. And not just any table at that, but _his_ table by a Miss Lovegood. He heard the two Slytherin girls at a nearby table gasp in shock and disgust. He himself was quite disgusted as he growled, "What do you think you're doing?"

She looked at him innocently. Pure and truly interesting was Draco's first thoughts on her reaction. He had never met anyone who could actually _pull off_ looking so innocent. "I am studying. What are you doing Draco?"

"Don't call me Draco." They were not acquaintances. She had no right to call him by his first name. It didn't help any that he felt a little thrill when she did so. He knew exactly what kind of thrill it was, too. It was the thrill that he got whenever he did something forbidden.

"It's your name, isn't it? Would you rather me call you Frog-legged Common-kisser?"

He glared, "Just shut up."

She instantly shut her mouth and opened a book. He must have sat there for a half hour and never once did she open her mouth. It was actually kind of creepy and strange that she still sat there across from him when he had been so mean to her. And the fact that she was being _silent_, he had always thought of her as the type to talk nonstop. Like Granger or something. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he ripped a piece of parchment out of his bag. With a discreet flick of his want he sent it towards the studious other occupant of _his_ table.

Luna looked at the piece of parchment hesitantly before opening it up. **Why are you still sitting here?** It read.

She sat staring for a few moments before beginning to write a reply. Instead of simply using magic to send it over to him, she slowly scooched over to the seat next to him and passed the note while reburying her face in her book. **Is there anything wrong with my sitting here?**

**Yes** he hastily replied.

**Interesting.**

**What's interesting?** As soon as he sent the note, Draco wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know.

**Nothing**. Luna resisted the urge to burst out laughing. Draco was getting red in the face from anger and annoyance.

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. **Aren't you going to leave?**

Now it was Luna's turn to look confused. **Where would I go?**

**To another table.**

Her eyebrow practically disappeared under her hairline she had them raised so high. **Is there something wrong with this table?**

**It's _my_ table.** His annoyance grew. The girl was an idiot not to notice that this was his table.

**I don't see your name on it.**

**I'll engrave it into the table next time.**

**That would help.**

Draco rolled his eyes in frustration as he got up and stormed out of the library. "Hey," she called, "You forgot your bag." She finished off in a whisper. He was already gone and the doors slammed shut behind him. She was left staring at the black bag with an odd mixture of emotions.

* * *

The next day Malfoy found himself stomping down an empty corridor. Sometimes he hated the pure stupidity of his friends. Plus, Pansy only got more annoying as the weeks dragged on. None of them got that he was busy. He had a mission after all…a mission where failure meant death. A cold shiver went down his spine. He was afraid…very afraid. He wasn't ready to die. He would never be ready to die. The fear he held in his heart would have made his ancestors turn in their graves. They feared no one.

Constantly he tried to get his future task off his mind. He needed to relax. But, somehow he never actually got around to relaxing. All he could think of was how the comfort that surrounded him would eventually disappear from his life and vanish into the air. It was vanishing rather quickly from the way he saw it.

Occasionally something would distract him, luckily. Sometimes it was Harry Potter and his mudblood-loving goons, and sometimes his own friends. As of late, thought, he had a new distraction. A new distraction he found himself liking beyond all reason. His new distraction was Luna Lovegood. The Loony Luna. He had tried to convince himself that she wasn't good enough to serve as a distraction; she wasn't up anywhere near his station, she was lower than the Weasley's, but all reasoning failed. His blood pumped faster when she was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. There was a mysterious air encircling her, threatening to consume him whole.

Soft footsteps padded their way towards him and he looked in the direction of the sound. It was the she-devil herself. He found himself gaping at her openly; he even stopped just to stare. What was just so special about this girl, he couldn't tell. All he knew was that she drew him in like a moth to the flame. Unfortunately, but for who he couldn't tell, the girl didn't even look up from her magazine. She completely ignored him and that was something that never happened where Draco Malfoy was concerned. Never. He picked up his pace and chased her down the corridor. "Hey Loons," he called out rudely.

The girls stopped and turned around to look him square in the eye. "Yes Draco?"

As soon as he had gotten her attention, he found himself speechless. He hadn't actually thought this far ahead. Finally he thought up a subject and asked, "Did you steal my bag for some sort of crazy voodoo ritual?"

She blinked but kept her cool, "No, but I know where it is."

"Where?"

"The lost and found room, of course."

He groaned in exasperation. It would take forever to find something in there. "Why is it in there?"

"You left it in the library."

"And you couldn't return it to me why?"  
"You left it, not me," she answered simply.

"Urgh," he groaned, "You're too frustrating."

"Or maybe you're not frustrating enough."

He glared, "Whatever," and stalked off down the corridor. He heard her walking away when something caught his eye. It was a silver ball of some sort and he could only assume it belonged to Lovegood. "Hey Lovegood," he called while bending down to pick the object up, "You dropped something-" he was cut off when he stood up only to find himself less that a nose away from the girl. He blushed. **The** Draco Malfoy blushed and dropped the ball.

"Thank you," she said with a grin as she bent down to re-pick it up.

"Whatever," he replied as he stalked down the corridor.

Luna looked down at the ball, "I believe he may be a kindred spirit. Although 'Whatever' seems to be a usual reply for him." The ball glowed gold as if in agreement.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Lots of Draco, but don't worry, Cedric shall be back. I wouldn't drop off one of the main characters just because I introduced a new one… or would I? 


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters. Right now, I would like to give special thanks to all my reviewers. It means a lot to me that you commented on this story.

Chapter 14

A strange emotion overtook him, although it wasn't unfamiliar. Jealousy was an unforgiving emotion Cedric had decided long ago. It led you to do things that you would regret for the rest of your life…or death. No, jealousy definitely wasn't unfamiliar to him. He had felt it quite often when he dated Cho. But Cho was always popular; guys were always looking at her, flirting with her, talking _about_ her. There was no way he couldn't be jealous. But he couldn't quite comprehend why he was jealous when it came to Luna. Sure, he had a…crush on her, but that was no reason to be jealous when he had just seen her talking to other guys.

It wasn't like she talked to many other guys, either. Just Harry, Neville, and Ron. That wasn't exactly a wide variety. Plus, he knew that none of them liked her. Harry had Ginny now. Neville… well, he wasn't quite sure about him, but he found the girl too weird to like that way, or at least that was what Cho told him. Ron was in love with Hermione. So, he had no reason to be jealous. But, being the observant ghost he was, he noticed the girl acting strangely lately. She would get lost in her thoughts more often; he had caught her daydreaming seven times in the last few weeks while tutoring her.

Something had happened and he didn't know if he liked it or not. So, being the idiot he was, he decided he needed to find out what was wrong with his best friend. Boy, did he wish he listened to the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'. Now he knew that she talked to Draco Malfoy quite often. He didn't even think that Malfoy acknowledged the girl's existence besides being the perfect object to make fun of. But, there they were, not only talking, but also slightly…flirting. Or, at least he was, even if he didn't quite realize it. 'Luna shouldn't even be talking to the evil bastard, let alone flirting with him,' Cedric thought grimly, his jaw set firmly in distaste. He had done nothing but make fun of her since she started school.

Malfoy didn't even deserve the time of day from Luna. Not that he did, either. No guy deserved Luna's attention. She was too good for everyone. But there was nothing he could do to convince himself he didn't like her. It didn't matter that she was too good for him, and it didn't matter that she was extremely weird. All he knew was that he wanted her and he wanted to be alive more than anything. He wanted to be alive even if it meant holding her in his arms just once. He wished he could tell Luna how he felt…he wished she could feel the same way, even though he knew that it was impossible. But now he had reason to believe that she liked Draco Malfoy. He could deal with her liking anybody but the bloody Slytherin prince.

----------------------------------------------

Luna felt herself beginning to blush. Over the years she had learned that she hated blushing, even if it happened rarely. The last time she blushed she was red in the face for nearly a week because of her extremely pale complexion. And here she was blushing. It was an event that could not be stopped and she hated it. 'Stupid Cedric,' she glared, 'Why does he seem determined to make me red in the face for a month?' He sat on the floor grinning from ear to ear. "Have you two kissed yet?"

She glared even harder, which was another activity she hated doing, but in this case she couldn't help it. "We're not even dating. We're not even friends."

"Sure," he teased, "That's what they all say."

"Well, it's a good thing that I'm not all of them, right?"

He shook his head, "Oh, you may not be all of them, now, but someday you will be. Trust me."

"I'll never trust you again if you keep saying that me and Draco are dating!" She never got this angry, but somehow this conversation was making her lose her cool. Why was Cedric so insistent that she liked Draco?

He grinned, "You're on first name basis. My, this is getting serious." He laughed. "Please, invite me to the wedding… Luna, are you blushing?"

He was about to continue teasing when Luna abruptly stood up, "I'm leaving." 'I made her mad,' Cedric thought. It wasn't like he wanted to make her mad; it was just that _he _was so angry. He didn't even want to tease her, but something had made him do it. He blamed the jealousy. Why did she like him? "Luna, I'm sor-"

"See you later," she didn't even look at him as she exited the room. Cedric slouched against the front of his bed in shame. Maybe he had taken the teasing a bit too far…or maybe he had taken it a lot too far.

-------------------------------------------------

Luna was now not only blushing, but she was confused. It was much harder to use stealth at night in a dark, eerie castle when you were confused and blushing and angry. She really didn't understand why she was blushing, either. Normally, that kind of teasing was easy to ignore, she had gotten a lot of it last year when she had acted like she liked Ron. It wasn't as if she wanted to date Draco, although she found him quite interesting. It seemed more along the lines that she blushed because Cedric was the one doing the teasing. Which didn't make any sense since she was nearly completely certain that she didn't love Cedric like that. He was much more like an older brother (or what she supposed one was like, Ginny had described the experience often with her) or a best friend. Sure, he was extremely handsome and funny and smart and- she caught herself abruptly in mid thought. OK, she didn't like him like _that_ much. He was her friend and she couldn't like him.

Now her confusion on other hand, she could understand perfectly, she decided as she put her reasons for blushing as far out of mind as possible. It wasn't the look in his eyes when he was teasing her. It was a sad look, almost as if he didn't want to tease her, but felt he had to. It was like he didn't really know what was going on. She didn't understand; if he didn't want to tease her, why did he do it? Something was seriously wrong with him and she was determined to figure out what it was. After a few moments of thinking, a theory popped into mind. Cedric missed Cho. He missed being with her. It wasn't a good theory and she absolutely hated it for some reason, but it was the only thing that made sense. It wasn't as if he could be in love with her or anything like that. With that, she ran quietly to her common room and sat in front of the fire, contemplating what was going on in her life.

A/N: Yup, definitely a lot more Cedric in this chapter.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters. Yes something major is going to happen. It's called the climax and no story is complete without it. (And mine isn't really going to be a romantic climax, I think). Read and enjoy.

Chapter 15

"Hey Luna can you wait up for a minute," Cho called out, running to catch up with the other girl. Luna stopped mid-step and spun around, smiling goofily at the upperclassman.

"Hello," she greeted informally.

"Umm, Luna," the girl shifted nervously. She could feel the stares of her peers as she talked to the local loony, but she tried hard to ignore them. "I-I've needed to talk to you for a while now."

Luna nodded vigorously, "Alright."

She shifted again and kept her eyes on the ground. For some reason, Luna seemed overpowering to her. "I know."

"You know what," asked Luna innocently. But, it wasn't the fake innocence that Cho had come to expect from her friends, but a true innocence.

"I know about Cedric being…a ghost."

A shocked look passed over Luna's face and her mouth was agape. "How-When," she was silent for a few moments, and Cho had to admit this was the first time that she had ever seen Luna at a loss for words. "That night months ago, right?"

Cho nodded, surprised that Luna remembered that time, it had been so long ago. "Yeah. Sort of. I thought that seeing him was actually a dream, or rather, a nightmare. But, he ended up visiting me and I've known since then."

"Oh," there was nothing more that could be said.

Cho nodded in agreement, "Yeah. Oh."

There was another long pause. Luna hated the silence, so to break it she asked, "Have you seen any Schnorlaxes around here?"

"Luna! Be serious," Cho scolded, although she actually thought it was rather funny. That question was so out of the blue that it could only be taken as funny. It was almost like a 'get out of jail free card' for awkward pauses. "The point is, if you ever want someone to talk to, I may not be your first choice, but I'm still here. And if you want to know anything about Cedric that you don't already you can always come to me." She finished with a grin.

Luna shook her head. "No, not right now, there's nothing to say…but I'll keep that buried in the millions of lobes of my brain so I don't forget. I wouldn't want Cunaranians to get into my brain at night and take that piece of information and destroy it."

"That's good," Cho laughed, "I wouldn't want to be forgotten." She was still laughing as she walked away. A few students gave her weird looks, glancing between her and Luna, but they shrugged, assuming that Cho had just finished making fun of the girl. 'She always keeps her cool one way or another. I can see why Cedric likes her.' Luna thought sadly as she walked down a corridor, for once wishing that it were filled with people, even if they were just making fun of her. She hated being alone.

-----------------------------------------------------

The ground was nearly completely frozen. 'In a few weeks it should begin to snow,' Luna thought to herself. She couldn't wait for the snow. It was always a time of joy for her. It made her remember her mother and all the good times she had with her. Christmases and snowball fights… those were the things she missed more than anything. There was a crack as a branch snapped under someone's foot. Quickly spinning around, Luna tripped and nearly landed face first in the ground, if two hands hadn't steadied her just in time. "Next time you trip, I might not help you," a familiar voice sneered.

"Well then I guess I'll land face first on the ground."

Malfoy lifted an eyebrow in slight amusement, "Too bad it might ruin your rather pretty little face."

Now it was Luna's turn to lift an eyebrow, "Are you flirting with me?"

"Maybe," he smirked.

Luna shrugged, "I have no time for flirting for I am on a mission." She got up and started to walk away when she felt something warm grab her hand. She looked back to see Malfoy staring down at their clasped hands just as shocked and even more horrified than she was. He quickly let go of her hand, "Whatever, Lovegood," while watching his back as he stalked off, she heard him whisper, "Stupid girl. Why the hell did I want to hold her hand?" But as she blinked in surprise, she thought it must have been her imagination.

-------------------------------------------------

Harry couldn't sleep. Too often he had dreams of the death of those who were close to him. People he considered his family incinerating in flames. Something was going to happen soon, but what it was, he didn't know. He didn't want to know because it was going to be bad something in the back of his mind said. Instead of dwelling on it, lately he had taken to wandering the school late at night. Avoiding Filch was hard, but he had six years of experience. "Come on, I think I just saw it go this way," Someone whispered loudly. 'Luna?' Harry thought and tried to follow where he last heard the voice.

"I thought I saw it go that way," a stronger, much more masculine voice replied. 'Who is that? I recognize that voice?' He thought for a couple of seconds, 'That sounds almost like Cedric did… but that's impossible because he's dead.' Finally, Harry caught a glimpse of a long stream of blonde hair, lit eerily by the moonlight. 'Luna.' Behind her was a boy, chasing after as fast as he could. Harry resisted the urge to gasp. It was Cedric. Or, rather, Cedric's ghost. Neither of them noticed him as they passed. Instead they kept on chasing something he couldn't see. He tried to call out to them, but his voice wouldn't work. When he could finally make a sound, they were gone. 'What is going on?'

A/N: This chapter is done and I hope you enjoyed it. Please review; constructive criticism is always appreciated.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters. Please read and enjoy this chapter. This is a longer chapter than I have been doing lately. -

Chapter 16

The world was spinning out of control. Things were happening too fast. The world, it was dark, too dark. Things were whirling in a blur and Harry groaned and fell over, clutching his throbbing head. Something had to be done. There was something he had to do… something he couldn't quite comprehend at the moment. He looked up. Ginny. She was so pretty. "Harry," she whispered before drifting away, out of his vision and into the whirling blur that was the world. It was too late; she was gone. Slowly he got to his feet and turned around. It was Luna. Two figures stood beside her, one completely dressed in black and the other looking surprisingly like Cedric had when he last saw him. Cedric seemed to be begging her to stay somewhere, crying for her, but she went with the dark figure, not even glancing back.

He awoke with a start, sweaty and scared. What happened? What the heck did a dream like that mean? "Harry," Ron called groggily, "You alright?"

"Yeah," he whispered back, "I just had a nightmare."

"Oh, ok, if you're alright." Instantly the red-haired boy seemed to fall back to sleep, snoring heavily.

"'Night." Harry whispered, even though his friend couldn't hear him.

But Harry couldn't get back to sleep. Something _was_ happening and Luna was right in the center of it and it seemed like she was slowly dragging people into whatever it was with her. In a matter of seconds he found himself walking the empty corridors, wandering around in a lost, dazed manner. He needed to know what was going on. Lately his life seemed to be spinning out of control and he didn't like it. The darkness finally seemed to settle in and he was able to semi-see in the dark corridor. The corridor was familiar, but something was strangely out of place. He looked around when he noticed what looked like the outline of a door in the walls of stone surrounding him. Sure, it was a stonewall, but one stone jutted out like a door handle, so he instinctively tried to turn it. Nothing happened. Again and again he tried, but without any reaction. Finally in pure frustration, he pushed the stone down, feeling more than a little foolish. There was a couple of soft 'clicks' and the stone moved apart to make a small hole, which he carefully crawled through. A door was sat the top of a rather rickety looking staircase and Harry found himself climbing it against his better judgment.

Slowly he opened the door and he couldn't help but be surprised by how easily it opened; he expected that the door wouldn't budge from its old age. There were marks on the floor in the heavy layer of dust, suggesting that people recently had been moving around in the room. Rather quickly he scanned the room before his eyes rested on a single, lone figure. "Cedric," was his barely audible whisper.

The ghost stared at him in slight shock. "H-Harry."

"You… you're a ghost." Cedric just kept on staring at Harry instead of replying. "You… have you been here the entire time? Just sitting around while people mourned for you?" Cedric nodded in mortification. "You coward," Harry spat, "Couldn't even say hi to your friends. You let me believe that-that-"

Cedric cut him off, "I let you believe that you could have saved me, when, in reality, there was nothing you could do to save me."

Harry nodded angrily. "How could you do that?"

"You said it. I'm a coward. I was afraid of what people might think."

"How long has Luna known about you?"

"Since the beginning of this year," was his shocked reply.

"I saw you and her last night," Harry explained, "Were you exploring the castle?"

"Something like that."

Harry nodded before bursting into a full-blown interview, along with yelling at Cedric for his idiocy.

---------------------------------

The air was freezing and Ginny predicted that it would start snowing in the next week or two. Who knew that Harry had actually liked her for a while and that he had actually had planned on asking her to the ball, but she had accepted Neville's invitation before he had a chance to ask? Actually, she was feeling pretty bad for abandoning the poor boy at the ball and she hadn't gotten around to apologizing. She figured that he was OK with it, but after he started avoiding her she wasn't so sure. All thoughts about ditching Neville swept out of her mind as she walked down a corridor and saw her brother, as in Ron, snogging Hermione. 'Disgusting,' she thought as she felt vomit rising in her throat.

The couple sprung apart at hearing her footsteps, both of them slightly panting and extremely flushed. "I'm going to pretend I did not see anything." They all nodded in a silent agreement. She walked on, but the horrid image from only moments before were engraved in her mind. Finally she found Luna and hoped the poor girl could take her mind off the snogging session she had just witnessed. "Luna," the redhead shouted, waving to her friend.

Luna nodded at her and smiled widely. Ginny proceeded to run to meet her in a hung, "Dear lord," Ginny breathed, "You will never believe what I just saw!"

"Did you see a Nimblethum? A boy turning into a Christmas tree? Did you see Professor McGongall's underclothes?"

Giggling, Ginny replied, "No, but close. Try Hermione and Ron snogging in the hallway. For all I know they still are!"

"Now that," Luna informed her friend, giving her a hard look, "Is very unbelievable."

Ginny hit Luna playfully, "Shut up. I suppose… I suppose that it made me wonder about the future a little bit. I mean, where am I going to be in ten years with the war? For all I know I could be dead."

Luna shrugged, "We will never know until that time comes. All you can hope for is happiness."

Her laughter was short and restless; Ginny was truly scared and didn't want to have a huge surprise for her future, "I want to be happy, Luna. And despite what a lot of people think, I don't need Harry for that to happen. I want to be in love; I want to have someone to love. It doesn't have to be Harry. I want a big, comfy house in the country, two kids, one boy and one girl. I want to be a distinguished witch. But, I don't need Harry to do any of it."

Luna nodded to her friend. Dreams were easily understandable and comprehended, at least for her, "What color will your house be?"

"White," the redhead put a finger to her lips, "With green shudders and a huge porch with one of those rocking seats that muggles seem to be fond of." Ginny laughed and winked, "This is silly, it's never going to happen."

"Never say never," was Luna's small reminder.

Ginny looked at the girl next to her, "What do you want, Luna?"

Shrugging, Luna answered her friend, "I want to create spells; I want to travel. I…I want to have a home in people not places. My homes are my friends, as few as those are, and as long as I have those, I'll be fine."

"Do you ever want to get married and have kids?"

"Maybe…but, Ginny, I do want a family, it's just not the thing I'm waiting for. It will be a long time before I get a family."

Ginny nodded. "The world is a strange place, though, isn't it? For all we know our lives could be totally different from how we've imagined them."

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Cedric wanted to scream in frustration. Why did she insist on talking to Malfoy? Why did she want to be with him? Something strange was going on and he was determined to find out what. Luckily now he had a spy of some kind. Finally he turned to his raven-haired friend, "Luna talks to Malfoy."

Harry gaped, "W-why?"

"I don't know, but I want you to find out. It doesn't feel right."

"Well, no wonder if she's talking to Malfoy," a thought struck him, "Cedric are you jealous?"

Cedric glared at Harry, "Just watch them for me, will you? I don't need anything bad happening."

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"Come on, I want to show you something," Luna whispered, motioning to Cedric to follow her with a warm smile. He always felt guilty about teasing her about Malfoy, even though he hated Malfoy. She said it was all right, she forgave him, and she apologized herself for getting so angry, but the guilt was still there. So now he settled on acting extremely nice to make up for all the times he got angry at her. Even with her crazy nargle-hunting plans. She said something about all nargles in the castle needed to be found so they didn't infect the student population when the mistletoe went up. He just went with her plan and for three days the scoured the castle for them, but they had only saw a small sign of one in the dungeons. He said to leave it because Snape could use the surprise.

"What," he asked in a rather harsh whisper. Somehow, whenever he had finally found peace of mind that did not include thoughts of Luna, the image of her and Malfoy played into his mind.

They walk led them to the roof and Luna sat down and motioned her to follow. Caution was thrown aside for her safety, he didn't want her to get in trouble, and he sat beside her. "What did you want to show me," he whispered in her ear, there was a strange sort of magic in the moment and he didn't want to ruin it for the world.

"Just watch," she answered, giving him another soft grin.

So he did and the sunrise came. He had seen hundreds of sunrises, but none were as breathtaking as this one. The one glance he spared to his side completely made him turn his head and stare. Luna's hair had turned into an array of colors, but gold rested as the most prominent. Her eyes shown and a smile adorned her face. She was pretty in her own way, but now, in the sunrise, she was beautiful. The smile she had grew when she looked at him, "Pretty, huh?"

"Beautiful," was his whisper; his eyes never left her.

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Malfoy's eyes formed narrow slits. 'So Diggory is a ghost now? He better stay away from Luna. She's mine.'

A/N: I really want to start having some Cho/Luna friendship, but I have no idea how to get into that because of how different they are. I'm too afraid that I'll start making Cho like Ginny, and that is **not** part of the plan. Oh well, I hoped you enjoyed. Please review. Constructive criticism is appreciated.


	17. Chapter 17

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Harry Potter or any such character. Read and Enjoy and (hopefully review).

I guess that I should give you all some heads up on what's going on. I've been avidly avoiding saying anything to do with this story, but oh well. There are multiple pairings in this fic. Some are expected, some aren't, it's just something to deal with. I enjoy the fact that you all want to have a say in who gets Luna, but the pairings might come out in a way you never expected unless you look close enough. There are a lot more chapters to come in this and I hope that you've enjoyed reading so far. After this is completely finished, I'll probably start another multichaptered, long fic, then come back and edit this one over for the tiny details. I'm currently looking for a BETA, so it might be a while before the next chapter comes out (again).

**Chapter 17**

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The sun beat down on his already sweaty back as he walked around the grounds. Quidditch practice had just ended and he didn't particularly feel like going to his dormitory yet. He didn't want Parkinson hanging all over him, trying to find new ways to get into his bed. He didn't want those stupid buffoons he called his friends following him around. 'Scratch that,' he thought somewhat bitterly. 'A Malfoy doesn't have friends. A Malfoy has pawns.' Sometimes, although he'd never admit it out loud, he had enough trouble admitting it to himself, he was jealous of the Potter geek. He may not have the power or the looks, but he definitely had friends who would go so far as to die for him.

Draco wanted to scream. What was he thinking? He wanted to be like_ Potter_? There was no way in all of hell he wanted to be a thing like Potter. The Potter geek was ignorant, unworthy, and annoying. Not to mention he had the Dark Lord after him. Unintentionally he allowed a shiver to go down his spine. No, he definitely did not want to be like Potter. If he were like Potter he would be friends with mudbloods, stupid, unworthy mudbloods. Actually, Potter and mudbloods seemed to fit together quite nicely.

A familiar head of blonde tresses came into view. Now this was an interesting girl. Her family had connections and they were quite the established pureblooded family from what he had heard, and yet, despite all that, the girl acted like a complete nut job. She was much more interesting than Parkinson any day. Luna Lovegood the Social Outcast. 'A friend of Potters,' something in the back of his mind whispered. He growled, 'Enough with the stupid Potter geek.'

He leaned against a nearby tree just watching the girl. Mostly she just sat staring at the crystalline waters of the Lake, but occasionally she'd dip a hand in and watch the water droplets fall into an unimaginably brilliant design. Once, she actually dipped her whole face in the water, but she removed it immediately, shivering from the insane coldness. He grinned before walking up to her.

She glanced up at him, but for once there was no question in her eyes as she motioned for him to sit down, to which he nearly joyfully obliged. "I was just testing the water to see if some Wogles had nested in it. Would you like to help?"

"No," he stated simply and somewhat coldly. She shrugged and gave him a large goofy grin, making his insides flutter with an unknown emotion. He leaned back and just watched her. Eventually he started to get bored, "What's a Wogle?" Without realizing it he had completely avoided asking the question because he already knew that the reply would be strange and outlandish.

Completely serious, the girl grinned and replied, "A Wogle is a teensy tiny water spirit that has a circular bluish body. It infects the water and spreads various muggle diseases to wizards. Of course, medics have no problem with the diseases; the diseases Wogles spread are truly just extremely annoying to have to heal over and over, so I keep a careful watch for them. I wouldn't want to contract a muggle disease, now, would I?"

"So you just stick your head in the water," he rolled his eyes, "That's a load of crap. There is no such thing as a Wogle. Stop acting like a child."

A hurt look passed over the girl's open bluish gray eyes and a small pang of guilt hit him hard, but he quickly ignored it. "There is too, just you wait, Draco Malfoy, I'll find a Wogle and prove you wrong." Yet again she exuberated so much energy in such a simple statement and he almost believed her. Almost, but not quite. The world was becoming such a confusing place. Who would have ever thought that he would actually find Loony Luna interesting in something other than bullying?

"Yeah right Loony, the second that you find a Wogle is the day I kiss the Potter brat."

"Is that a bet?"

Somehow the look in her eyes told him that he had better not make it a bet. The look in her eyes inclined him to believe that he would lose…and he didn't take losing very well. "No."

She shrugged. "More like the day you kiss a Potter is the day I find a Wogle."

"Is **the** Loony Luna losing faith in herself?"

"Nope, you'll kiss Potter yet, I believe."

Malfoy replied, "If I were to ever kiss Miracle Boy, I would kill myself. My death would be a long and painful journey of trying to rid myself of the awful taste."

She grinned, "I never said Harry. I said a Potter. You'll kiss someone, someday, with the last name Potter."

"I'd rather kiss you," he said sarcastically. What he was being sarcastic about, he wasn't quite sure. For once he seemed to have stumped the strange girl. But that didn't last long as he suddenly found soft lips pressed against his own before they moved so Luna could rest her cheek against his, "I still think that you'll kiss a Potter and now you can compare who you'd rather kiss: the crazy Ravenclaw or a Potter, either Golden boy or one of his relatives."

Despite the rush of heat surging from his lips and his cheek, he found himself glaring, "I am not gay, I would never kiss Potter."

"Then how do you know that he tastes awful?" She gave him a cheeky grin and ran to the castle. Apparently it was dinnertime.

"I happen to have it on a very good authority!" He yelled back, but inwardly grinned. She was nice.

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Cedric couldn't bring himself to move from his view at the window. Luna didn't… Luna couldn't… Luna _wouldn't_ kiss that Malfoy bastard would she? No. It wasn't Luna; it was some other girl with scraggily blonde hair and a butterbeer cork necklace who kissed Malfoy. The scene ran through his head… them talking, Luna leaning forward and kissing him, the pressing her cheek against his. No… it couldn't have been Luna. Luna wouldn't do that. She was much too sweet and innocent and Malfoy would not have looked like he enjoyed a kiss from the school loon. His anger boiled. Malfoy and everyone should learn to respect her. She was pretty and smart and funny and cool and… his eyes widened and he shook his head. No… Malfoy would never understand a girl like her. _He _was there for her._ He_ understood her. _He_ wanted to kiss her. _He_… Cedric stared off in shock. No. He did not want to kiss Luna. She was his best friend.

He groaned and acted like he was resting his head against the stonewall. Who was he kidding? Of course he liked her. He liked her a lot. He liked her more than a friend should. He shook his head yet again. Ghosts should not feel this longing and want. Ghosts should just be there, not really feeling anything. They should just be. They were supposed to be a nonliving animate object that occasionally could offer some help to the living.

He didn't realize his door was open, but he could somehow _feel_ someone's gaze on his back, burning a hole with its intensity, even though he was a ghost. He turned around to find Luna looking at him, an overly large smile plastered on her face. "Guess what," she asked him excitedly.

"What?"

Luna's smile dropped slightly, "You're supposed to guess."

"I'm not in the mood right now, Luna."

"Fine," the girl sighed, "I guess I'll tell you anyway." Her smile suddenly appeared larger than before. "Draco Malfoy asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him…although he wants to be kind of secretive about it… I guess because I'm loony."

Cedric finally snapped at hearing that Malfoy wanted to be secretive about going to Hogsmeade with Luna. If it were him, he would proudly hold her hand in public, "How could you agree to go out with that jerk? Didn't he always bully you?"

"You… don't know. He's really nice, just give him a chance."

"Oh yes," he replied sarcastically, "He's just so nice, but he wants to be secretive about your relationship. Yep, that's really nice, Luna. I thought you had a brain."

Luna's anger had finally flared up for the first time in a long time. "Why can't you just say 'have a nice time' or something. Isn't that what you're _supposed_ to say?"

"Only if you like the guy your best friend is dating!"

"But he actually wants to go out with me!"

"That doesn't mean you have to date him! That doesn't mean you have to kiss him!"

Luna's eyes narrowed slightly, "How do you know about that? I never said anything… you were spying!"

"So," he yelled back, "You don't have to kiss him!"

"But I wanted to!" There was a period of silence.

"Get out." He whispered, hurt.

"Fine."

Cedric buried his head in his hands. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just be happy for her?

* * *

Author's Note: Well, that's the end of this chapter. Hope ya liked it. 


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters. Wow…I haven't written anything new for this story since I was fourteen…nearly six months ago… this is really making me realize why I need a BETA. If you're interested, PM me.

Chapter 18

Cedric kept his head buried in his hands for a long time. A knock was heard at the door and although he didn't want any company at the moment, he somehow felt that he needed to talk to someone. He just hoped it wasn't Dumbledore. He couldn't talk to his former headmaster about such things; it would just be weird. For some reason the more he thought about Luna and her hurt look, the more he wanted to cry. He never had wanted to hurt her and wasn't planning on ever doing it again.

Eventually he just broke out into tear-empty sobs, as he could shed no tears. The knocking on the door came longer and harder and finally whoever was on the other side gave up and started whispering to someone else so softly he couldn't hear what was being said. Slowly the door creaked open and Harry and Cho slipped inside.

"Nothing's gonna be thrown at us, right?" Harry attempted to lighten the mood, but unfortunately failed miserable. Silence fell over the three friends only to be broken occasionally by Cedric's sobs.

Cho sat down next to him on the bed and made soft cooing noises, the kind of thing that would sooth a baby, but not a man. It was clear to Harry that she was just as bad at comforting people as he was. "God, how can she go out with that jerk," he finally got out.

"Who go out with who," Cho asked somewhat soothingly.

"Luna…and Malfoy."

"What," bellowed Harry in outrage, "Why would Luna go out with _Malfoy_. Especially when she has you." The last part kind of slipped out of his mouth and hung in the air. He wanted to grab it and shove it back into his mouth. He wanted to go back in time and make sure he never even thought about saying it. It was clear that that was exactly what Cedric had been thinking and it hurt him more than anything.

Cedric finally lifted his head out of his hands, "Why doesn't she like me?"

Cho thought for a few moments, "Sometimes it takes a while for someone to realize what they have right in front of them all along. If you stay near her, if you comfort her in her times of need, and if you support her decisions, maybe not agree with them, but support them, she'll come to you. She'll realize you're here waiting."

"Thanks." The sad boy mumbled.

"Anytime."

He flopped back on his bed, "God I love her."

Harry stared from the girl to the ghost boy in a sort of stupefied shock. "But-but Malfoy? I mean c'mon, it's Malfoy. He wouldn't look twice at Luna. When would they even talk?" He still did not believe that Malfoy liked Luna. It just wasn't humanly possible.

Suddenly Cedric got defensive. "Why wouldn't he like her? Who wouldn't like Luna," he calmed down and mumbled, "I saw her kiss him…by the lake."

Cho couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the girl known as Loony Luna. Sure, Cedric had gotten jealous a couple of times while they were dating, but nothing quite like this. He couldn't seem to decide how to react to Luna. It was a weird look on Cedric, but cute nonetheless. Luna would eventually realize the great guy she had right in front of her, Cho predicted, and she hoped soon. She never thought she'd see the day when guys like Cedric and Malfoy started to like Hogwarts's resident Loon. Nothing like this ever seemed to happen to her she thought grumpily.

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Luna could feel the excitement in her growing. It was her first date and with her one true love, at that. After all, he had asked her out, even if he did want to keep it a slight secret. He even went as far as putting a disguise spell on himself, although where he learned it, she didn't know. Hogwarts only offered those spells to seventh years that were going into certain careers. But, then again, now that the War was starting, Hogwarts teachers could have started teaching sixth years the spells, too. Seeing as she wasn't a sixth year, she didn't know and she didn't want to risk one of Draco's mood swings by asking him about it. Sometimes he was moodier than a girl at that time of the month.

"Hey," Draco greeted her. He was at least three inches taller than he usually was and his hair was on the longish side and slightly darker than usual. "Ready?" For some reason he looked nervous.

"Yup," Luna smiled. It was kind of weird that she was going out on a date with Draco. She had actually thought her first date might have been Harry or Cedric (If he wasn't a ghost… and wouldn't have graduated…) 'Well, in a way they were,' she thought, 'They both kind of 'took' me to the ball.'

Later that night, when she was laying in bed and not asleep, as she should have been, she would wonder why dates were exactly so special. But, then she would realize that there was no way to describe how special a date was; it would just remain one of those mysteries forever. For now, though, she would just have the experience of the date. Malfoy was having a hard time deciding where to take her himself, even though he had been thinking about it for days. After a while he led her to the Three Broomsticks, Madame Puttifoot's just didn't seem like something she would enjoy. "So…" Draco started, and then trailed off. He couldn't think of anything to say. This had to be a first for him.

Luna looked at him questioningly, "Yes?"

"I… really don't know what to say." 'Smooth,' he thought to himself, 'Real smooth. Just tell her exactly what is on your mind. That'll sure impress her…since nothing is in there at the moment.'

"That could cause quite a few problems, couldn't it?" After she had said it she noticed that he didn't seem to like her well-meaning joke.

"Come on," he grabbed her arm and dragged her up and out of the tavern, seemingly not noticing that she wasn't done with her Butterbeer. "Do you want anything to eat?"

She glanced back at the tavern. They could have just gotten something there… "Nope."

"How about something to drink?"

'I just had something to drink…kind of.' "No thank you." He was sure asking a lot of questions. And…they were kind of stupid questions at that. Not that she would tell him that.

"Then…" he shifted from foot to foot, "What do you want to do?"

Shrugging, she replied, "I don't care."

"Okay, come on," he grabbed her arm and led her down the street to a few shops. "Do you want to shop for clothes or something?" It was kind of weird that all the experience he had with Pansy meant jilt with Luna.

"No," she thought for a second, "Actually, I would like to visit the bookstore."

"The bookstore it is, then."

And that was her date. She sat in an armchair and read while he sat in the one across from her, staring at her to his own content. Although it was a strange date, it was somehow comforting and she knew that she wouldn't forget it. Luna would have laughed had she known that Draco was also up all night…but instead he was berating himself for acting like such a total and complete idiot in front of her.

Author's Note: Well, this was kind of short… I don't really like it…but oh well. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review.


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. This is a shorter chapter. I've noticed that I'll start out with longer chapters and they steadily get shorter. Oh, well. Thank you to my BETA, Ember Nickel.

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Chapter 19

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Glaring, Malfoy practically roared, "She's alive, you idiot, you're not!" Somehow he had found Cedric exploring the castle, purely by chance, and he decided to tell the ghost boy off. After all, he was a rather stupid ghost. "Leave her alone."

Cedric glared right back, something that Malfoy found actually rather frightening, even though he was a ghost. "I'll let her decide whether she wants to be left alone or not," he paused, seething in anger, "Did you ever stop to think that maybe it's _you_ she wants to leave her alone?"

"Why are you so jealous? Is it because I'm alive and can _touch_ her?"

"Shut up! If you lay a finger on her, I'll make you wish that you had never been born. You were the one who started arguing with me."

Maliciously smirking, Malfoy replied, "And you hate that I can be with her. You can't think of an argument against me because you know I'm right. Because you're dead, you have no right to be with her." Cedric's anger flared, 'How did he even find out that I'm still here, as a ghost?' "You're pathetic," Malfoy continued, "You're in love with someone you can't have and it kills you." At his little joke, he giggled. Until, that is, a sudden rush went through his body when Cedric stuck his hand through the boy's body.

"Never insult me," he hissed and disappeared through the floorboards.

"Damn," Draco swore under his breath, gasping in shock before steadying himself and stalking off in another direction.

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"Hey, Luna," Neville greeted, walking up to the girl. "H-how have you been?"

Smiling at him warmly, she replied, "Positively wonderful. Although I can't wait for Christmas, daddy said that he'd take me to Russia this year to continue the hunt for magical creatures."

Neville nodded and looked out of a nearby window. Sure, the girl was strange, but she was fun to talk to and more different than anyone he had ever met. He just wondered if sometimes she got fed up with wishing there were the creatures that her father talked about not existing. He got the feeling that she knew that they didn't exist, but she wasn't willing to say anything. Maybe it was just part of wanting to believe in her father more than anything else. "I can't believe how late it's started snowing this year! But, now that it's started, it just won't stop." He chuckled, "I guess we'll have a White Christmas again this year, after all."

Small talk might be nice for some people, Luna had always thought, but she had never quite taken to the practice. But, for now she figured it'd be all right. Neville smiled at her sadly, "I wish we still had the DA to go to practice our magic. It was always fun."

"It helped to prepare us for the second war," she agreed, "Too bad no one else wanted to continue." Neville nodded as they walked towards the Great Hall in companionable silence. "Have you talked to Ginny or has she talked to you?"

Shaking his head, he told her, "No. We've been avoiding each other. I still can't believe she ditched me! How about you and Harry?"

Luna nodded in response, "Harry and I talk. He apologized and begged for forgiveness. He's my friend and I can't exactly hold teenage hormones over his head as the cause for breaking off a valuable friendship."

"I wish that Ginny would apologize to me."

"Sometimes," Luna said cheerfully, "People just need a huge shove in the right direction. Just talk to her and see how it goes."

"Thanks, Luna. It's always nice to get good advice from a friend. I don't particularly like talking to my grandmother or strangers about these things. Not that I would talk with strangers about this type of stuff or anything." As he turned red, Luna nodded with a large, goofy grin plastered to her face. Out of everything that he said, 'a friend' stuck out most in her mind.

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"So what are you reading?"

Glancing up, Luna nearly dropped her book in shock. Hermione Granger was talking _civilly_ to her. "A muggle play. _Romeo and Juliet_." She was currently more afraid than she had ever been in her life.

Hermione's face lit up with a sort of excitement that only she would have at the mention of a particular book or play or anything that would involve her intellect, and she sat down in a nearby chair. "So what do you think of it?" There was a certain strain to the conversation, something that probably had something to do with the fact that the two never were very fond of each other. She dimly noticed that some students were looking at them oddly in the library; it seemed that the differences that the two of them had was well known throughout the school.

Grinning, Luna asked, "The truth?" Nodding eagerly for her response, Hermione smiled genuinely, "I think that it's a bit unrealistic, truth to be told. Romeo's a brat and a bit of a… pansy and Juliet is a thirteen year old who knows nothing of love, or, even life, for that matter. The same extends to their parents and relatives and followers."

The smile on Hermione's face only grew, to Luna's surprise, "I got that same impression! They were both idiotic and acted rashly. I truly don't get why that particular play is one of Shakespeare's most remembered. It wasn't nearly as good as it could have been plot-wise."

Luna smiled as she realized that she had finally found Hermione's weak spot. Books, books, and more books. At first she had thought it'd be Ronald, but apparently there was something that she could talk about even easier. "I agree completely!"

For once the silence they sat in was comfortable, not just Hermione's glares and her own fake obliviousness. "Listen," she said quietly, and Luna turned her attention back onto the brown haired girl, noting the sad tone in her voice, "I know we don't see eye to eye on most things. I know we'll never be the best of friends, and I actually think that we're both quite thankful for that. But, I do want to say that I'm sorry for the times that I treated you unkindly without reason. I wish that I could take back some of the things I said, mind you not all of it, for some of it was so true that it shouldn't be taken back, but some of it was just cruel and spiteful. I would like to start on a new foot. It kind of sunk in what could have happened while you were in the Infirmary." She smiled and held out her hand, "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger and I'm a sixth year Gryffindor."

'She may just have a bit of oddness in her,' Luna thought to herself, "Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood, fifth year Ravenclaw. Do you like my butterbeer cork necklace?"

And so the conversation went on, perhaps not quite like friends, but rather like new acquaintances, willing to build up into more.


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you to my BETA reader, Ember Nickel for helping me with all of my mistakes! Please enjoy and review! I especially love constructive criticism.

Chapter 20:

"You know that he's sorry, don't you," Cho asked the younger girl quietly in the empty corridor.

There was a slight pause from the girl and in her eyes there was a distant look, as though she were imagining something that wasn't there. "Yes." She whispered softly as she fingered her butter beer cork necklace. For a few seconds there was silence and Cho found herself studying the girl, trying to figure out what she was feeling. Luna was the one girl who she could never figure out; no matter how hard she tried. "When he comes to me, I'll say that I'm sorry."

There was a few more seconds of silence and Cho shifted uncomfortably, "Why don't you go to him?"

Luna gave Cho a flash of the bright smile that she knew and loved, but it was gone, and instead there was a curious glint to her face, "Have you ever heard of the Cumpleshire Teta?" When Cho shook her head, Luna continued, "Whenever they get into fights, it's the one whose the most sorry that gives the apology?"

Wondering where Luna was going with this, she urged the girl, "Go on."

"Sometimes I feel as though I should be the one to apologize. After all, I'm the one that made all of these fights and such happen and it's completely wrong for me to want an apology." She smiled again, "After all, who am I to demand an apology? I've only just begun to have friends. And I think that that's just it. I'm just beginning to have friends. And I'm wondering whether or not Cedric is my friend or a mere acquaintance. I've never exactly been sure how to tell the difference." The last part was said with a cheery tone and Cho found herself averting her gaze. This wasn't the first time she wondered what it must be like being Luna Lovegood.

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Ginny took a deep breath. This was it. There was one day until Christmas Break and there was something she had to do. Guilt had finally sunk in her skin; along with Luna dropping a few hints on what she was expected to do. "Hey Neville," she touched the boy's shoulder gently, startling him.

"Hey Ginny," he avoided eye contact. Suddenly, the seriousness of the situation sunk in. She was mean. There was no way around it. She now wondered why Luna even hung out with her and why Harry liked her and why Neville asked her to the dance in the first place. Slowly, her eyes filled with unshed tears and she sat down, "Neville," she whispered, "I am so sorry. I- I never meant to hurt you. You are one of my friends. I'm so sorry for ditching you." He looked down at her almost lacking in sympathy, but there was a glint in his eyes that almost looked like tears of sadness and a bit of anger. "Will you forgive me?"

That simple request made him stare, "I-I'm sorry Ginny but I c-can't. I'll be your friend still. I guess, but I can't forgive you yet." With that he walked away and she burst into tears. She was slowly learning that life wasn't always based around popularity. She could only hope that someday he would forgive her. Deep inside, she knew that day wouldn't be for a long time and that she had lost the trust of a valuable friend.

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The letter seemed to stare at her. Luna thought it was some sort of virus, an untruth sent by Death eaters. Her father would never do something like this to her. He would never break such an important promise. For hours upon hours she had studied with Cedric to pass all of her classes and make her father proud. Since school had started she had been looking forward to her breaks. A chance to see her father was one of the few things she depended upon. It was one of the few things she needed.

She could feel someone watching her, so she turned around. Cedric as staring at her from her dormitory doorway, "Are you alright," he asked softly, worry evident in his voice.

She wanted to say, 'Yes, Cedric, I couldn't be better,' but no part of her could lie about this, "No," she started to cry, but she didn't really know why. She hadn't cried in a long time, so this came as a shock to her. "Father says that I can't come home for Christmas and that despite my grades, I have to stay at the Burrow with the Weasley family this summer because it's not safe to travel. Not that it's such a big deal staying with the Weasleys or anything."

As she ended he had come and sat down on the bed next to her. He reached out as if to touch her, but then recoiled. Never would he want to cause her pain, even accidentally, because he was a ghost. "It's alright Luna," he tried to sooth the younger girl; he knew how much she wanted to see her father over break and that trip in the summer. 'I've been kind of hard on her,' he realized. With the way she was feeling, he would actually _encourage_ her to go out with Malfoy, if that's what made her happy. "We can stay here and have some fun."

When she looked at him with her tear-filled eyes, he wanted to cry along with her, "We still have a lot of exploring to do, don't we?"

He nodded, but was innerly berating himself. Cho had said to apologize, but it was a lot easier said than done. "Luna… I'm sorry that I yelled at you for going out with Malfoy. That's your choice, not mine, and I shouldn't have argued with you about it."

Through her tears, she smiled, "It's alright." 'He actually apologized!', "I should have listened to you. You've been my friend longer than he has." She paused and sounded actually forlorn, which made him feel even worse, "He hasn't talked to me since our date. Not that it's a surprise or anything…" Cedric was mentally kicking Malfoy. Why wouldn't he want to talk to Luna? Luna wiped her tears away, "I guess we'll have lots of things to do over break."

He nodded in agreement.

-----

Carefully, Cho approached the Slytherin Prince on the train. "Malfoy," she called out. Before she went off home for break there was something she had to do. He turned around and glared, along with lifting an eyebrow quickly. He had the compartment all to himself, apparently. He probably had kicked all of his goons out after getting sick of them.

"Well, if it isn't the Ravenclaw Princess," he sneered, "Get out."

"As long as you leave Luna and Cedric alone."

He glared, "Why should I?"

She sat down, "Because they already have a picture. And you don't belong in it."

"Are you saying that I don't deserve her," he growled, although she got the feeling that he was secretly enjoying arguing with her. He must have been getting bored.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Cho smirked, "Just like I don't deserve Cedric."

A look of realization crossed the boy's face, "Oh, I get it. You're still in love with him. And he loves Luna."

Cho glared, "No I don't love him anymore."

He believed her, surprisingly, "But you don't love Roger, either, do you?"

She glared harder, "No. I don't as a matter of fact. Not yet, at least. Will you stay away from her?" She asked, standing up.

He snorted, "No way. I like Luna and Cedric's fun to mess with."

"So you're messing with Luna?"

His eyes widened in shock, "No! No, I would never do that. But, as you said about Roger, I'm not in love with her yet." He smirked, "You're leaving after you said that you wouldn't, aren't you?"

"Yes," the look she gave him was menacing.

"Allow me to get the door."

Their hands brushed as she exited the compartment and an electric shock went through her body, glancing over her should at him as she walked away. He was staring at her with a smirk plastered to his face. "Bastard," she growled. He must have cast some sort of spell that would shock her.

A/N: Sorry for the slightly OOC Luna. She just wouldn't work for me in this chapter.


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters. Enjoy this next chapter. Review this chapter. Love this chapter. Do whatever, just read it, please. And I'd like to thank my BETA reader, Ember Nickel. Mucho Gracias. I consider this chapter more of a reflection than anything. And it's a redo of the original chapter 21 and 22 that I had planned out, so… that's why it's taken so long.

Chapter 21:

Luna found herself wandering the empty halls of Hogwarts absently, looking at all of the Christmas decorations. It was strange, how everyone got so excited over Christmas. Well, anyone who was here. Many people had gone home for the holidays already. And she hadn't joined them; going on the trips her father had always taken her on instead of getting a present. This year it would be different, though. Pain shot through her when she thought about the fact that she wouldn't be going with her father for this holiday. There was still that silent hope that her father would send for her. Shock still ran through her veins as she glanced at the letter for the hundredth time.

_Luna,_

_As much as it pains me to write this, I feel that I must. This isn't the normal Quibbler creatures that we're dealing with. This is the dark lord. And you are my daughter. I can't have you come home this holiday. It would be much safer for you to stay at Hogwarts. We both know that he has risen and I am in danger, for I was… No. We mustn't go into that. It's for both of our best interests that you stay at the school. You would be in too much danger coming home. Please understand, my dear daughter. The trip that we talked about this summer may still go on but… I can make no promises. Whether you understand this or not, I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you are staying at the school. I love you, always remember that, no matter what happens. Your present will be sent to you soon._

_Your Loving Father_

_Lovegood_

_Editor of The Quibbler_

It truly was more of a business letter than anything, with the way that he signed it. She expected him to actually use his first name, but apparently that was too personal. It wasn't just the letter that confused her, or the fact that she wasn't going to be going with her father over the holiday, but the fact that her life seemed so… messy and disorganized. Which was something that she normally didn't consider that bad, but now… now she just didn't know.

She wasn't used to having guys like her. And that's where Malfoy became a problem. He made her giddy and do things that even she wouldn't normally do. After all, she had kissed him. And she hadn't ever even thought she would kiss a boy. It was just kind of strange to her. And, she had once told Ginny that the first boy who asked her out would be her prince charming (although she knew that there was no such thing), but she couldn't help but think… She couldn't think. And that was the problem. She tried to sort through this, but it only made her more confused. Maybe this was love. It certainly was confusing enough.

But… she wasn't stupid. His father was a bad man. The blood that ran through his veins might be just as evil as his father's. Harry would be… he was… he could be… disappointed in her. And Harry was one of her friends, something that she didn't have too many of, so she had to take care of him as best she could. Harry, Malfoy, Cedric… It was all making her head spin. Cedric…

He was another 'boy.' She didn't like to think of him as such, but he was. There was something in his gaze… the way he argue and his jealousy; she certainly wasn't stupid. There were those looks he gave her, but… perhaps it was nothing. Perhaps she was just imagining things. After all, she was known for having an abundance of imagination. She hoped that those looks were just her imagination; she couldn't even begin to wonder what she would do if he turned out to be in love with her. But, she shouldn't wonder. It would never happen.

"Luna." It was Cedric. He called softly down the hallway to her, looking flushed despite his ghostly form. There was something in his eyes; something was happening that he wasn't going to tell her. She could see that from the distance. She could tell from his stature. Something was happening. "Two days until Christmas," he reminded her, although he didn't have a smile or a grin on his face like he normally would.

"Indeed it is," she replied, also lacking jovialness, going against her naturally optimistic nature. It seemed that her optimistic-ness had started to leave her during the year sometime. "I hope that there is very little mistletoe put up throughout the castle. I haven't seen much, but they always seem to put up more on Christmas Eve. You know, that there is almost always something hiding in the stuff…"

She trailed off as she looked at him. Something was definitely happening. Normally he would have said something to agree with her or contradict her, but now he just stared. But, she didn't ask what was happening. It was his business, and if it was something that ghosts went through, then so be it. After a few moments of silence, Cedric looked away and she became aware that he had been gazing at her, and, for some reason, she felt pleased with the fact. This wasn't normally her. This wasn't who she was. "Where are you going?"

She smiled, "I was going to go look up some things on ancient magic," she paused to look at his face and noticed there was a strange look on his face when she mentioned ancient magic. Finally the pregnant silence was broken.

"I… I just wanted…" He trailed off before starting back up, "I might be… leaving." She knew that her face displayed her shock, but he went on, "I might come back, I might not. I just want you to know that," again he stiffened and paused, as though trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to say, "you're a good friend and it would have been hard not to have you here for me for the past months."

"What are you talking about?"

There was a slight pause, "If I'm not back on Christmas Eve, just ask Dumbledore. He'll explain."

"Cedric…"

But he was gone. And not for the first time she hated the fact that he was a ghost. It was kind of cool; even she would admit, to the fact that he could just phase through walls and stuff. She guessed that it was the one cool thing about being a ghost.

A/N: I hope that you liked this chapter, although it was rather short. I had thought it was longer when I looked at it in Word, but oh well.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters that belong to it. Thank you to my BETA, Ember Nickel. Does anybody here read Kingdom Hearts fics? I was wondering if anyone knows a good Riku/Sora, Riku/Olette, or Riku/Leon fic.

Chapter 22

* * *

"Professor," Cedric looked up at his doorway in surprise. He hadn't expected that Dumbledore would come to see him; Christmas time always seemed extremely busy and he thought that the Headmaster would have too much on his mind to come and see him.

_The old man smiled at the young ghost, although his eyes didn't twinkle as they normally would have done, "I hope my presence is not unwelcome, for I have news to deliver."_

_Cedric smiled, "I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to kick you out of my rooms, Professor. After all, this is your castle."_

_Dumbledore didn't object to it, but instead he nodded absentmindedly. Odd. He drew something out of his robes, an old; word; leather-looking book, and set it on the table. "I believe you have heard of the Ceres Effect by now; you aren't so cut off from the ghost world that you wouldn't know about it."_

_"The Ceres Effect," he whispered to himself, shifting through his mind as if trying to find that single piece of information, "When the Ceres constellation reaches a certain point on the moon, a reflection is given off. That reflection is filled with… strange ancient magic power?" The last part was said as a question because he truly didn't know much about the effect, although, like Dumbledore had said, he did know _something_ of it. "I don't know exactly what that magic is for…or what it does…"_

_"This ancient magic is more focused towards ghosts, among a few other creatures," Dumbledore explained, "In many cases, the result of The Effect on ghosts is a sort of body for nearly an entire day." He shook his head at Cedric's slowly forming grin as this piece of information started to sink in, "Please, settle down, my boy. The Ceres Effect is quite dangerous, and very odd. In some cases, as soon as the light hits the ghost, the ghost will fade out of existence, as if it never was. In other cases, ghosts survive the entire day, and then they disappear and are never seen again. Sometimes it doesn't even work at all. It is dangerous, Cedric."_

_For a few seconds, he allowed this to soak in, trying to grasp his mind around it, "If it is possible that… this magic can give me a small bit of life, shouldn't there be a way for me to become… permanently alive?"_

_Shaking his head, Dumbledore replied, "Nothing has ever been discovered yet. The danger level is _high_, Cedric. Every ghost gets the chance to try this once, for better or for worse. Just once. Then, the magic doesn't work again. The chances of you disappearing are extremely high. I need you to understand that."_

_But, Cedric's mind was racing. He didn't understand. Only one thought, one word, one name, came to his mind. 'Luna.' Just once chance was all he needed. He needed this chance to prove that he was better for Malfoy. "When does The Ceres Effect take place?"_

_"Christmas Eve."_

_This could be her Christmas present. 'Either that,' he thought, 'or yet another reason for her to be in pain… to be sad.' The thought of eternally disappearing to who-knows-where wasn't very appealing to him, but, as he quickly weighed his options, he decided it was for the best. "Where do I have to go?"_

And that was how he found himself in this position, walking through the dank, dark Forbidden Forest.

_"Are you ready," Dumbledore gave Cedric a hard look; the twinkle in his eyes was completely gone now. Cedric nodded in reply. "Then we must get going."_

Everything was silent and creepy; the snow was up to Dumbledore's knees. Cedric didn't particularly feel it one way or another. For a few moments he wondered how the snow became so deep in a place shrouded with trees, but he didn't dwell on it. Anxiousness was swelling throughout his body. It was kind of uncomfortable, with silence reigning high, but Cedric was unwilling to break it, no matter how badly he wanted to.

Finally… eventually…. they came to a sort of clearing surrounded by familiar large trees. On the ground sat a mammoth stone, just as big, if not bigger than a Quidditch field. It was like nothing he had ever seen with strange carvings etching the sides and the top, each separate one growing red, creating some sort of graph made of symbols. Blood red stones were inlayed along the edges, reflection the now-visible sky, the trees, the earth, and the nearby creek. "The Stone of Several Ages," Dumbledore nodded, just as curious and enthralled as Cedric was, "This was here long before even the Four Founders. Long before the existence of mankind was recorded on cave walls." Dumbledore seemed to break out of his trance when the clouds covered the moon, shadowing the stone. "Listen. When the moon's reflection reaches the third stone to the middle, you must enter the stone. When it reaches the large black stone in the middle you must be _on that stone_. You cannot step onto that stone a moment too soon or too late."

Cedric nodded. He of all people knew the seriousness of the situation. After all, he was one of Hogwarts' Champions. He would not take this lightly, either, not when he had Luna, Harry, and Cho with him (although they didn't know what he was doing). The realization struck him. Here he was standing in the snow, not cold at all, worrying over Luna, when he had two other friends to worry about. He felt horrible and forgetful. "Now," Dumbledore croaked in worry and anticipation and a hint of excitement. As quickly as he could he reached the red stone just in time. Now all he had to do was wait for it to reach the middle. Somehow, the second he reached a certain point, the reflection seemed to move faster, making Cedric race to keep up. He was falling behind. The black stone was in sight, but the reflection was beating him. In a final attempt, he pounced, flying through the air towards the stone. A bright light burst forth and it was followed by an indescribable amount of pain. "Luna," he screamed.

* * *

A/N: Well, I hope that you consider this a dramatic chapter. I think that I do. It was more dramatic than most. I just thought of something rather funny. Or maybe not funny, but whatever. What if Dumbledore had taken Cedric to this place, made him do all this, and then just said, "April Fools." It would be horrible… but I think that I'd find it funny. Never mind. It sounds kind of stupid. Just forget my existence. 


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Much thanks to my BETA, Ember Nickel. I've done the final count. There is somewhere from 10-15 chapters left. Not a lot and this fic is coming to an end. And, to those who asked, thank you for your compliments, but I have to much on my plate to even think about a sequel. That's why this fic will be complete with an epilogue! Thank you my loyal reviewers!

Chapter 23

Pain shot through his head. "Where am I?" Everything was dark and cloudy and a foggy mist. There was a feeling of cold in his hands on his feet, in the stone that was beneath him. He, being Cedric, gasped and stood up. Then promptly fell over.

There was a light chuckle and he looked up to see Dumbledore at the edge of the familiar stone that was currently beneath him. "I guess," he called, "You have to get used to your legs again."

"I'm," he was shocked. There was no way to describe how shocked he was. He was shaking and pale and his eyes were opened as wide as they could go, but it still didn't cover it. "I'm alive?" He had been certain that he was dead. The pain he had gone through was unbearable.

"Yes," called Dumbledore, thoroughly amused, "If you don't hurry up, your 24 hours will be up before you even do anything." It struck him that he should try to find his parents. He should see how they were doing and let them know that he was alright and everything. But, he knew he couldn't. It would cause too much pain when they discovered that he was back to being a ghost again.

But, despite the sudden loneliness and feeling as though he didn't have a family, he didn't need to be told twice to enjoy his life and he got up and ran to the Headmaster. In a quick movement he had the older man wrapped in a thankful embrace. Tears came to his eyes as well as to Dumbledore's. "It's good to have you back. Even if it's only for this short while."

"It's good to be back." He broke the hug and smiled.

"Now," Dumbledore's eyes began to twinkle familiarly, "I believe there are a few people you would like to see by the names of Lovegood and Potter. Too bad, but I believe Chang is away for the holiday."

"Thank you," Cedric repeated, "Bye." He ran through the forest, completely forgetting of the dangers.

"Cedric," Dumbledore called, but he was already gone.

--------

Harry stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe it. It was Cedric… but he was… alive. "Harry," he called, running up to his friend grinning.

"C-cedric?" Instead of replying, Cedric gave Harry a hug, relishing in the fact that he could touch. And feel. There was so much he wanted to do and say that nothing seemed right. "Wh-what happened?" Harry now seemed to be taking in the full fact that Cedric was alive. He could feel him. The memory of holding Cedric's dead body came back to him in a flood. All of those emotions… that fear. The feeling of seeing someone he had come to rely on die… it was just too horrible for words. Without realizing it, silent tears started pouring down his face.

"Hey," Cedric smiled again, "Stop crying. Everything is fine."

"I-I know, it's just-"

"It's all right." This was the first time that someone had actually cried at seeing him _alive._ It felt kind of weird.

"Are you going to stay like this?"

Cedric shook his head, "No. It's a weird ghost magic thing. I don't know the full details of it, but it will only last until Christmas morning. Twelve o' one, to be exact."

"Twelve o' one," Harry whistled, his eyes getting big. The tears had stopped falling and he was wiping his eyes. "Good god, it's good to have you back. Even if it is only for a little while."

Cedric laughed a deep laugh; the laugh of the alive. "The only weird thing is, is that I'm not in an actual body. I'm in a solid form of… well, me being a ghost. I still feel like a ghost, although I can touch things and feel them. Well, I guess the weird thing is the fact that I can't phase through walls and floors."

Harry grinned. His eyes were still puffy, but he hadn't been crying that much. It was just one of those little things that he needed to get out. There was a sort of need in his eyes, but he pushed it back. "Well, I don't want to keep you any longer," he winked, "You probably want to see Luna."

Cedric saw through it. It wasn't that hard. Harry was one of his friends and he would be a fool if he thought that his friend didn't want to spend time with him. But, he didn't press the issue. He knew that he would have to take the opportunity that had presented itself. He could only thank that Harry was willing to not cling on him and let him go his own separate ways. "Thank you, Harry." Smiling he ran down the corridor, sometimes stumbling. He still wasn't used to having legs and having to use them.

------

The blonde girl whom he had come to love sat in an overly stuffed armchair in the Ravenclaw common room. She was reading the Quibbler, an issue stuffed to the rim with Christmas legends and creatures, but even from a distance he could see the anxious expression on his face. It was a good thing that he had an inside with the suit of armor protecting her House or he wouldn't have been able to get in. It had taken him a lot of dodging people and hiding in closets, but he had reached her finally. "Luna." He smiled. It was one of those smiles that lit up his entire face and drove the girls crazy while he was still alive. The girl looked up, a wide smile playing on her features.

Then, her eyes widened. She screamed. "Cedric! You're-"

"Alive, more or less." He grinned. His face was beginning to feel tight from all the smiling he had been doing lately.

"Bloody," she cut herself off and ran to hug him, "How did this happen? Did it have anything to do with Forswe Elves?"

"No," he shook his head, although reveling in the feeling of her in his arms, "Remember when you told me of ancient magic? It had something to do with that. There's a giant stone somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. It somehow channels magic."

She nodded, soaking up all of the information, "I was so worried!" Her eyes lost their usual wide, dreamy look. In fact, they looked downright serious. And that scared Cedric, "I thought you were going to leave me. Just like everyone else."

He didn't say anything in reply. There was nothing that he could say. He would never leave her. Something inside of him just wouldn't let him. Roughly he pulled her into a hug. Suddenly, everything seemed to change. He couldn't leave her, this frail being now caught in his arms, silently sobbing. "Don't worry. I won't leave you."

He hugged her tighter. Her hands clutched on his robes. "I know." And they stood there, completely silent, holding each other.

----------

"Come on, this way!" Luna was giggling and leading him through the castle. Laughing, he followed right along with her.

"Do you even know where we're going?"

She scoffed, clearly insulted, but ended up smiling anyway, "Of course." Raising an eyebrow, he awaited an answer. Finally, she sighed, laughed lightly, "The Astronomy Tower."

Of course she would choose the one place closed off to students during the day. Unless, of course, they had a class or something. But, no one had a class over breaks. "We'll get caught."

"Come on, it's Christmas Eve. They'll be cool about it." His smile grew ever wider in the dark. He couldn't help it. Luna was this person that he just couldn't place his finger on. She was a completely mystery in a no mysterious way. "Plus, I want to see Santa Claus."

Cedric raised his eyebrows. Really, it shouldn't have surprised him that the girl believed in Santa, but it did. "Santa?"

She nodded, climbing the stairs and not looking at him, "My dad used to always tell me that even if he wasn't with me on Christmas Eve, I could always wait for Santa. He'd bring me a piece of him."

"So now you're going to watch for that piece?"

She smiled her large, goofy smile and nodded, "Plus, it's the only time the Higglywiffs come out to play." Cedric rolled his eyes. He should have thought about Higglywiffs. Suddenly she stopped and looked up, a blank expression, although still somewhat dreamy, on her face. She glanced at him and shrugged, "It's probably filled with Nargles." He looked up to see what she was looking at. Mistletoe.


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you to my BETA Ember Nickel. Today is my birthday! My sweet sixteen! Yeah! Anyway, read on.

Chapter 24

Almost without thinking he reached out and grabbed her wrist, practically spinning her back to him. For a few seconds they both stared at each other, Luna with shock and Cedric with determination. Then, slowly, he lowered his head to hers. Her eyes grew wider and wider. It never quite fully hit her what he was doing until his lips came down upon hers, soft and sweetly. She could do nothing but stare until he started to kiss her harder. Then she reacted and encircled her arms around him, playing lightly with his hair. He tasted sweet. Dead guys should not have tasted sweet. But who was she to judge? When was the last time that she kissed a dead guy? Or anyone had kissed a dead guy for that matter?

He was the first one to break it off, lightly parting his lips from her. "Don't you understand," he asked. There was so much urgency in his voice.

"No." Suddenly her voice seemed small. She had to resist the urge to touch her lips.

His eyes were cast with a strange shadow, dark and slightly scary. All she could do was stare strait back at him until he broke the staring contest. Slowly he stepped back, into the moonlight. "I love you." His face was red and his voice was low. She could barely hear him, but she still did. And she gasped. Not necessarily from shock of what he said (although, it was shocking and maybe made her a little embarrassed and excited at the same time), but because he was going translucent again. Cedric was turning back into a ghost!

"Cedric," she whispered, reaching out to touch him. His eyes were still slightly cold. "You're turning back- you're turning back into a ghost!"

With a gasp he looked down at himself. She was right. "I- I have to go." He was embarrassed. She didn't love him or else she would have said something. And now he was changing back into a ghost. His life- death was perfect. Really, it was just great.

-------

"Ginny." It was Christmas morning and the two girls were eating in the Great Hall. But nothing was as cheery as it should have been on the holiday.

The spunky redhead turned towards Luna and smiled, "What's wrong." She scanned her friend's face and frowned, "Come on, smile."

And she did, "I'm glad that you're happy." It was her familiar, goofy smile, but there was something sad behind it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing I'll tell you later."

"No," Ginny made the blonde look her square in the eye, "Tell me."

"I'm just- I just-" She couldn't get the words out. Luna was not someone who went to people to help or to talk to them about her feelings. She was more of the type to try to help out her friends and keep her own emotions bottled up inside, behind a goofy smile and a silly story.

"Spit it out," she dipped a little in the strawberry sauce and drenched her pancakes in it. Ginny didn't want to sound harsh with her friend, but she was genuinely curious. And Ginny did not like being curious. "Christmas breakfast is always the best. Yum." She had to try to get Luna to say something and she knew that the only way that that would happen would be to take the spotlight off of her. Change the subject and she'd get lucky (she knew that she would) and Luna would spit it out randomly. It all had to do with her being a strange, odd person. "My mom made Harry a sweatshirt again this year, I see. It looks just as dashing on him as always. Not that he doesn't look good all of the time."

"Yes. I suppose he does look… dashing."

"Hermione looks like she had just rolled out of bed. I know that she's trying, but she really should do something about that hair. I think that it would look rather good if she straitened it more."

"I like how curly it is."

"I wish that Ron and her would just come out and say that they're dating, or, if not dating, at least that they're snogging."

"Maybe they don't want anybody to know."

"It would solve so many problems, though."

"What do you mean?" Luna knew what Ginny was trying to do. But she didn't say anything and let her friend continue her rant.

"Well… I think that George has got a little bit of a crush on her. I think. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty good at telling these things."

For a few seconds Luna just stared at her friend, "What do you do if someone you thought was just a friend kissed you?"

"Well…" She paused, "I guess it depends on who it is. I mean, maybe I like said friend more than I'd ever given thought on. I guess that I just need to think about things. Or, maybe just tell him that I don't like him. If he's my friend, he'll understand."

Luna whispered, "He'll understand…" They were walking down a corridor by now (Luna wasn't hungry and Ginny ate fast) and were heading to the library. But her eyes widened and she let out a noise akin to a squeak.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked, worried. She looked around when her eyes landed on a ghost in front of them. Tall, young, and handsome was the only way to describe him. That, and vaguely familiar. "Hey, aren't you Cedric Diggory?"

--------

Christmas was a bore for Cho Chang. Her parents had a relatively high position in society, so that meant that they had to go to parties with all of the important people. And that also meant that she had to talk to other rich, snobby kids whom she didn't particularly like. It was a good thing she had Roger with her, although that wasn't much of a help, really. He actually liked these parties. "Watch it," someone growled as she accidentally stumbled on their foot.

"Why don't you?" Of course she ran into the one person whom she thought was a complete jerk. Draco Malfoy. His parents were powerful and because of that, they went to many of the same parties.

"Why are you talking to me you mud-blood lover?"

"Why are you talking to a mud-blood lover you pure blood freak?" She was becoming better and better at comebacks lately. Not that they were good, but compared to how horrible they had always been before, they were getting there.

There were a few seconds where they just stood, glaring at each other. Sparks flickered between their eyes. Some thought that they would blow up or attack each other. But Roger came just in time to 'save the day,' "Do you want some punch, Cho?" He paused and looked at Malfoy, "Good to see you." His mouth was tightly drawn.

"I'm fine and I'll be even better when this bloke leaves." She glared at Malfoy.

"I love seeing you in pain," he retorted, "So I guess I'm not going to be leaving for a long time."

Roger stood, watching the bickering match with slightly hooded eyes. "Come on, Cho, let's dance."

"Fine." She stuck her pretty nose up in the air and allowed her boyfriend to lead her to the dance floor, all the while aware of Malfoy glaring at her from across the floor. And, she was a little disappointed that she had to end the bickering early because, although she wouldn't admit it, he looked quite good in his formal cloaks.

A/N: Man, I never realized how much fun it could be to write about Cho, even for a short while. When I first started this story, I didn't like her and just used her (wanting to keep her as a minor character), but she's started to grow on me. How horrible. Stupid Cho.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Much thanks to my BETA, Ember Nickel. I think that now that I'm almost past Christmas, time should start speeding up a lot. It seems like it took me forever to get to Christmas, and then there's going to be a lot less chapters till the end and a lot more months to cover.

Chapter 25

For Ginny, the initial shock of seeing Cedric wore off later that Christmas day. Now she just wanted answers. Plus there was that shocked look that Luna had gotten and the way that she had lost her breath. These things seemed to scream that she knew that the dead boy was a ghost for a long time. And now she was wondering who exactly it was that kissed Luna. It had only just occurred to her that no names had been said.

It was after curfew, but she knew that dodging Filch and exploring the castle was going to be the only way to find him. Too bad it was a lot harder than she originally thought that it was going to be. In twenty minutes, she had almost run into Filch, Snape, and had a rather close call with McGonagall. She didn't feel safe just roaming the halls like she was doing. "Cedric," she called out, remembering how when she asked him if he was Cedric, he had just disappeared. It was also the only piece of information she could get out of the girl. Footsteps came down the hall. There was nowhere to hide. Panicking, she pressed herself against a wall. Something appeared in front of her, slightly shimmering, but mostly dull. She was able to pick out the face of Cedric before he looked at her.

"There's a knob a little ways below your hand, press it and go into the hole." She did as she was told and found herself in a dusty room. Rickety stairs were in front of her and Cedric was standing at the top, in an open doorway. "Come on." There was no smile on his face, not like she could remember when people used to call him a gentleman and such when he was in school. When he was in school it seemed like he was always smiling at people, even if he wasn't happy. Kind of like Luna always did. She took the stairs slowly at first, thinking that they didn't look dependable. They were likely to give out soon. But then it occurred to her that Luna must have climbed these very stairs many times and she quickened her pace, entering a dusty room. "I figured you'd want to talk with me."

Cedric was sitting in front of her at a small table, a book open. He seemed to have been reading. "Then you were correct."

He gave her a small grin; "Take a seat, if you want."

She did as he asked and looked around. "Nice place you got here."

"Dumbledore gave it to me."

"Any reason no one seems to know that you're not a ghost?"

"It's part of an agreement between me and Dumbledore."

"And this agreement is?" She wanted to know about this ghost. He had been extremely popular in his time at Hogwarts and now he was still alive… sort of.

"You're too curious. Curiosity killed the cat."

"And perhaps satisfaction can bring her back." Ginny countered. All the time she was thinking about how many more people must have known that he was here. Luna, Dumbledore, and more than likely, Cho.

"Alright," he looked at her more closely with his eyes slanted studying her, "but you strike me as a gossip."

"I never!" She yelled with indignation.

"Quiet down," he chuckled, "In order to keep the uproar of the students down and to keep things from getting even stranger at Hogwarts, Dumbledore agreed to let me stay under the condition that no one finds out. He didn't like it himself, but he fears for the safety of his students in these dark times."

"Oh," she nodded, "So, how long has Luna known about you?"

"Practically this entire year."

She looked him up and down and took in his tone, "This entire year, huh? You've been locked in this room for nearly two years and you haven't tried to come out?"

"I'm allowed to explore the castle at night."

"Then you must know a lot of pretty cool spots."

"Some."

"I'm also supposing that you were the friend that kissed Luna. Although how, I'm not quite sure."

He raised an eyebrow questioningly, "So you knew about me?"

"I only knew that you were a friend," she replied, shifting through his stack of books and magazines. Most, she was not surprised to say, seemed to come from Luna's personal library. He even had some back issues of the Quibbler lying around.

"Yes, I kissed her. I won't go through details because it isn't any of your business, but I kissed her."

"Good," she said determinedly, "Because that solves a lot of questioning Luna. You can never get any personal information out of that girl."

He was watching her with amusement. It struck her that she must be the total and complete opposite of Luna. He must have been wondering how they ever became friends, "What's the verdict, then," he asked, "Does she like me or is she more into someone like Malfoy?"

"Malfoy?" There was a lot she obviously didn't know about her friend, so she couldn't go around giving him answers, "I have no idea. I think that she's trying to sort through her feelings right now." Ginny paused and looked out the slit of a window at the moon, "Actually, she might be sleeping. But later on she'll be sorting through her emotions." Confused, she looked at Cedric, "What's going on between her and Malfoy? I mean, she's always nice to him, I think, but that's just her personality."

"They've kissed."

"Love triangle," Ginny grinned, "Nice." Then she frowned and whispered, "Malfoy?"

"Surprise, surprise, I know." Cedric had overheard her, "Have I answered all of your questions for the time?"

Looking at him, Ginny nodded. No doubt she would be back with more, though. It had never occurred to her that Luna was leading a life that she knew nothing about.

A/N: When I started this chapter, I was dreading it. Ginny is not one of my favorite characters and to have to write an entire chapter with her in it? Yuck. But I feel that it went ok.


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Lots of thanks to my wonderful BETA, Ember Nickel. Hey, I spun out a chapter that's longer than usual (although only by a couple hundred words).

Chapter 26

His breathing became deep and shallow. He needed to find Luna. He wasn't quite sure why, but the second he set foot into Hogwarts he needed to see her. Too bad Cho Chang was blocking his way, "Move it."

"Ask nicer," she yelled right back. Normally she wasn't the kind of girl to yell or get angry (although she did get extremely emotional, just not necessarily angry), she had this weird hatred of this boy. He seemed to think that he was better than everyone else and that ticked her right off.

Instead or replying, he literally bowled her over, making her yell, and headed towards the school. That's right, Draco Malfoy was on a rampage for reasons he couldn't quite begin to understand. And he needed to find Luna. There was just something in him that needed to make sure that she was there and that she was safe.

He had never felt anything like this. But he couldn't act any differently in front of his friends. She wasn't exactly the type of girl that someone would show off. But that was fine with him. He was perfectly content with how things were except for when he couldn't see her without making fun of her. His friends made fun of her, they followed his lead from previous years, and he found himself growing angry for his own stupidity. If he hadn't made fun of her, then he could parade her around like a goddess now. Life just wasn't fair to him.

Then there was that stupid Cho Chang. She kept getting in the way of anything he might have with Luna. She was like this strange bug that kept buzzing in his ear. A really cute bug, but a bug nonetheless. They always argued. It didn't matter what the subject, it was like they couldn't talk about it even under pain of death. Not that he cared. It wasn't like he liked her. She was just some stupid Ravenclaw. Dating a stupid guy named Roger. Who really dated a guy named Roger anyway? It sounded so muggle-ish. The girl was definitely stupid and below his station. That was his conclusion of her.

"Hey, what's up?" Blaise Zambini. Not a guy that Malfoy hated, but a guy that sometimes got on his nerves. The guy just never did what anyone else said. It could be quite annoying.

Malfoy shrugged, not really wanting to talk to a guy who had publicly opposed him on so many occasions. But Blaise wasn't a guy for hints, or at least that's how he wanted it to seem. He never suspected that Draco saw through his clever disguise as a dimwitted Slytherin. No, this boy was smart. And with acknowledging his greeting, Draco knew that he would be opening up a can of worms. Blaise knew things that Malfoy would never even dare to guess. Someone that smart could only be an enemy.

"How was your holiday?"

"The same as always." He hoped that his cold look and brief answer would give the boy a hint, but it didn't. There was a few seconds of silence before Malfoy finally growled, "What do you want, Blaise? You aren't exactly the loyal friend to me that you would like people to believe. You never talk to me unless you have a biting comment behind it."

Blaise smirked, "You're not as dumb as you look, Malfoy."

"Just get on with it."

"Have you seen Lovegood around? I would dearly love to speak with her. I mean, I feel that we must have so much in common. I mean, what with me being a Slytherin and her _dating_ one."

Draco flushed but retained his ability to glare, "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you." It wasn't an idle threat. He had the power to do it.

But Blaise just stood there and laughed silently. "Don't worry, Draco, we're buddies, aren't we?" At the look on Draco's face, Blaise's smirk grew bigger. "But, I must say that I love this sense of… power that I have in knowing something that you don't want anybody else to know."

Malfoy regained his composure and smirked in return, "No one would believe you."

"No," Blaise agreed, "But, what if I were to say that a Gryffindor had a very useful camera. One that could take pictures of the wizarding world? And what if I were to say that I have said camera?"

"What do you want?"

Stopping for a second, Blaise looked shocked, as if he didn't think that Malfoy would actually give in, "I want to be back with my old group of friends. The ones that you deemed unacceptable. The Ravenclaws. The Hufflepuffs. The Gryffindors. And I want you to say that my choice is wise. The last thing I need is crap for who I choose as a friend."

Draco paused, not expecting this to be the request. "They won't listen to me."

"Of course they will," Blaise smirked as he began to walk away, "You underestimate your own power."

------

Angry, Draco stormed through the corridors. All he had wanted was to see Luna, but Blaise was fresh on his mind. The boy was Slytherin through and through, even if he wouldn't admit it. He was evil and conniving. There was no way that he was ever friends with him. But, he knew that he had been before he had started doing things that were… worse than your average after-class-joke or bullying. The head of blonde hair that he had been looking for appeared in front of him, as if by magic. Or maybe his own need had drawn her to him. "Luna," he practically sprinted to catch up with her.

She stopped, paused, and looked at him with veiled eyes. Something seemed to be confusing her. He wanted to help her. He needed her. "Hello, Draco."

Glancing to make sure that no one was around, he drew closer to her, softly kissing her. But then shock drew over him when she moved back, as if she didn't want to kiss him. They stood staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity. "What's wrong?" His voice was surprisingly dark. He didn't think that Luna had this sort of affect on him. He always imagined that he had been in control of how he was feeling. He was wrong.

"I can't kiss you right now."

She said it so bluntly that it was like a punch to the stomach. "What do you mean?"

"I'm so confused. I don't know," she seemed to want to cry, but she kept her goofy smile on. It disgusted him that she was able to do this while telling him that she didn't want to kiss him. "I'm not sure that I want to kiss you."

"_Want_ to kiss me? You're not sure if you _want_ to kiss me." Anger welled up inside of him. Darkly he muttered, "Cedric."

"How did you-"

He cut her off. He couldn't stop him. He didn't want to do it, but something in him had burst with anger. For the first time in his life he had did the inexcusable. He hit a girl. Surprisingly she kept calm, staring at him with her large, dreamy blue eyes. It was him that freaked out, not understanding why he did what he did. "Luna! I am so sorry. I didn't mean to! I didn't want to! It just happened!" He rambled off petty excuses while she just stared at him with her large eyes, not moving an inch yet not letting him off the hook. A large red mark was starting to appear where his hand had slapped her cheek. Instead of her crying, he cried, "I never want to hurt you." She had too much of a control over him.

Gently, Luna put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly, like a mother, "It's ok. I'm sure you didn't mean it." They stood there, staring at each other.

"I didn't mean it, Luna."

She looked down so that he couldn't see her eyes. If he could, he would have seen the tears threatening to form. Her voice quivering, she replied, "I know you didn't. The Porsos must have made you do it. Mean little buggers." Suddenly she took off down the hall, not once glancing back.

---

A/N: Well, hope you liked this chapter. The next one should be out... eventually.


	27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Lots of thanks to my wonderful BETA, Ember Nickel. The first part of this chapter happens roughly the same time as Malfoy hit Luna. The second part you might want to read back a chapter or two to really get what's going on. It happens later, maybe around the next day or so. What's going to happen for the next few chapters is that times and dates are going to start colliding and going parallel to one another, just to warn you.

Chapter 27

Cedric was sitting down when Harry came to see him, bent over some extremely old looking scrolls. A worried expression was etched on his ethereal face and at once he wondered what was wrong with his ghost friend. With the way that he was staring at the piece of parchment, Harry was surprised that it didn't burn to a crisp.

"What's that," he asked as he broke out one of the cakes he had a house elf make before he came. He nodded towards the scroll.

Cedric looked up, apparently surprised that Harry was there. Had he not heard him come up?

"It's- it's hard to explain."

"Try me. I just got out of potions barely alive. Hermione and Ron just got into a fight and tried dragging me into it and Ginny won't stop bugging me about Hogsmeade weekends. I think that I can handle anything right now. It can't be much worse than anything else that happened today."

The ghost boy shrugged and quirked an eyebrow, "I'd be careful about what you say. You never know what you're going to get." He took a deep breath, "Dumbledore gave this to me. It… it may help me live again."

"Really," Harry's eyes bulged. "That's amazing. Wait till Luna hears about this, she's going to be so hap-"

"Don't tell her."

Cedric wasn't looking at Harry, "This is dangerous. If I… don't come back, I don't want her to somehow think that she could have stopped me. This is completely my decision."

"So you're going to do it?"

Cedric sighed, "Yeah. I think so."

"When are you going?"

The stairs creaked and groaned outside the door. This only seemed to make Cedric even graver, "That's Dumbledore now."

He must have been reaching the top of the stairs.

"Harry, I need to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"For this to work I need two more people with me."

"So what are you…"

Harry stared at Cedric for a few moments.

"You want me to go?"

The ghost nodded.

Harry sighed, "I'm in, I guess. As long as I don't get killed."

Dumbledore had reached the top of the stairs and opened the door, "There are things much worse than death, Harry."

------

She was encircled completely. Slytherins were surrounding her; there was no way to escape. Luna said nothing. Really, there was nothing to say. This had happened before, many times in fact.

"Aren't you going to say something?"

This was the part that shocked her. They didn't seem to know what they were doing. Everyone who teased or threatened her knew what he or she was doing.

She looked around, trying to figure out what to do. This wasn't the usual group of Slytherins who teased her. These were the ones who stayed in the shadows and out of the way, socializing with other houses and studying for the world outside of Hogwarts.

Someone shoved her. Luna knew better than to react.

"Why don't you say something, loony?"

Her eyes were large and knowing. The boy who spoke backed up looking slightly shaken. There was something about those big, blue eyes that made him suddenly wish that he had never agreed to come beat up Loony Luna.

There was another shove. She hit the ground, but it didn't hurt. It was more like a simple trip than anything else. This group was inexperienced at bullying and it showed.

"Hey," a familiar voice shouted in the distance, "Bugger off!"

It was Cho and Ginny. They came from opposite directions, not being the types to hang out with each other, wands drawn. That simple fact seemed to scare the crap out of a couple of the Slytherins. They hesitantly pulled out their own wands and looked at each other, wondering what they were supposed to do.

When Ginny went to disarm one of the offenders, a kid panicked and screamed something that sounded strangely like a curse. His wand was pointed at Luna. Chaos erupted. Spells were flying and no one knew who was casting them. People were screaming and dodging and trying hard not to get hit by a spell. What was truly amazing about this was the fact that it was really only the Slytherin group casting spells.

Ginny dodged just in time to miss a curse that hit another boy in the face. His nose burst into a bloody mess. A younger girl was unconscious on the ground, her skull cracked on the side. Another boy was simply lying on the ground and Cho supposed that he had been put under a _Petrificus Totalus _spell.

Cho eventually found Luna and drug her out of the dog pile of Slytherins. She was unconscious. There was a deep gash on the side of her head and her leg was beginning to bruise.

"Come on," Ginny said, grabbing the unconscious girl's other arm and swinging it over her shoulder, "lets get her to the infirmary."

Blaise watched from the sidelines. This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out. The girl wasn't actually supposed to get hurt. There wasn't supposed to be any fighting. None of this was _right_. He blamed Malfoy for this. None of this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the fact that he declared being friends with other houses wasn't an option.

He almost felt bad for Luna. Truly it wasn't her fault that she had gotten involved with Malfoy. It wasn't her fault that Draco didn't call off his goons when he tried to socialize with the other houses. But she was still there, and Blaise wasn't the type afraid to damage others as long as he got what he wanted. As long as Draco learned that his girl got punished because he wouldn't comply with the terms, everything would end up fine on his end.

Part of him was still extremely angry. If the stupid camera hadn't suddenly melted, seemingly by a very complicated spell, he wouldn't have sent anyone to roughen up the girl. He only meant for teasing to happen. He wasn't heartless, after all. He was just a Slytherin. With that final thought, he fled.


	28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Much thanks to my BETA, Ember Nickel. On with the story. Oh, sorry about how long its been since my last update. I've had things to do and all. Wow, it's almost been three years since I've started my story. In like, half a year, that is.

Chapter 28

Everything was so deep and dark. Harry was breathing heavily and Cedric wasn't doing much better. Dumbledore seemed to be the only calm one. Water was rushing around their feet (well, Harry's and the headmaster's) as they trudged on.

Finally they came to a long, ominous ridge. "We have to climb _that_?"

Harry seemed rather shocked. But he was still just as determined as they were at the beginning of the mission.

The entire thing was long and daunting. According to Dumbledore, they were still simply in the beginning of this 'adventure'. And that involved crossing a cavern that magic was unusable in and filled with acid, fending off giant… rock _creatures_, _and_ avoiding getting poisoned by thousands of flying darts.

-------------

"Go on," Luna urged him. She was sitting up in the infirmary, eyes on the boy. He was avoiding looking at her. Everyone was avoiding looking at her, it seemed.

-------------

"Come on, we must keep going," Dumbledore urged. While saying this, he fixed Cedric with a look that could almost be called… disapproving, "You must be careful, Cedric. There is a reason this is so hard to get to and if you think that it's just to keep the living away, you are sadly mistaken."

If the ghost had bones, they would have started shaking and clattering and creating noise throughout the hollow cavern. It was a damn good thing that he didn't have bones.

They trudged on. Harry stifled a grunt.

"Something," he said slowly, "Just brushed up against my leg."

Dumbledore also seemed to shiver as though something had just slithered up his leg, too, and ordered, "Keep moving. Do not stop."

Then the surprising happened. Cedric could feel whatever it was brushing against his own leg, "Erm… Dumbledore… I don't think that we should keep-"

His answer was cut short by a monstrous being springing up from the water. Everyone froze in shock as they looked at the beast. It had snakes… coming off of its body and sliding into the murky depths below. Its teeth were at least a foot long and its skin green and scaly. The thing had to be at least two hundred feet long and several feet wide, snakelike in shape, but with limbs.

When the thing let out a hiss that shook the cavern, Dumbledore screamed, "Run!"

Harry still was frozen in shock. Cedric did the only thing he knew how to do. He stuck his hand through the boy, freezing him immediately. It seemed to break the teen out of his stupor.

"Move!"

The thing crashed into the water, causing nothing short of a tidal wave, crashing into Harry and Cedric and capturing them in the coolness. Time seemed to freeze and go in slow motion as the snake-creature set its sights on the ghost. A moment of panic froze him, but the thought of death made him swim faster than anyone in existence.

--------

"You sure you want me to keep going?"

Luna nodded, seeming almost terrified, "This seems almost like one of the creatures in The Quibbler."

--------

A bright flash of light swept through the water. There was a slight vacuum of water towards the creature as it opened its mouth, inhaling the water. Vaguely Cedric was aware of someone grabbing onto his arm, pulling him to safety.

On a low sandbar, he sat up, gasping for breath. Harry was behind him all the same and even Dumbledore looked a bit disgruntled.

"We cannot stop here," he looked at Cedric, "This is the point where things get more dangerous for you."

He was referring to the fact, apparently, that he was both now able to touch and be touched. In short, death couldn't be too far away.

Harry sat up, still gagging up water, "Parseltongue apparently isn't as useful as I'd like it to be."

Cedric raised an eyebrow.

Shrugging, he told them, "They still seemed to think that we were most definitely food. Nothing seemed able to get that thought out of their minds."

He shivered as Dumbledore looked at them, "Everything here has been enchanted. Not one thing has gone against the wishes of whoever made it. Be careful. Next time, Cedric, you may not be so lucky."

The old headmaster turned and started walking towards a deep, dark tunnel. Harry shuddered when he even so much as tried to think about what awaited them there.

----------

Luna was staring at a wall in the infirmary, grasping onto the story in her imaginative mind. It wasn't pretty.

----------

They were stepping carefully, trying to ignore the strange glow that was coming from the floor in intricate patterns. They were silent, too, as they were concentrating too hard on the task at hand than on anything else.

According to the scrolls that both Dumbledore and Cedric had read before coming, this was called the Silent Corridor. It required the silence as one of its challenges. And keeping that silence wasn't exactly what Harry would have called easy.

Bats had been attacking continuously, their eyes red and fangs drawn. Goop clung to the floors in a thick pile of sludge. He liked to think that it wasn't from the bats, but he couldn't be too sure. There must have been _millions_ of them. For this part of the challenge, the relied on Dumbledore and his ability to use magic in his mind to fend of the raving creatures, otherwise they would have been far past dead. Harry almost gagged at the thought of dying in the pile of sludge.

It really didn't help that sometimes he could hear creatures crawling on the top of the surface. A few brushed against the dirty skin of his arms. And there were things moving through the muck. Yes, he definitely decided that it was too much to handle. He risked a look at Cedric. The older teen (well, if he had aged properly, man), looked as though he were going to be sick. Of course this would be one of the things he would have to go through when he regained his ability to feel. Gross.

The air was subtly getting warmer and warmer. And, it seemed, that the warmer it got, the more bats that attacked. Harry had to resist the urge to scream. They were clawing at his face, digging into his hair, making him shiver with convulsion. Dumbledore gave him a sign. He recognized it as a 'Don't give up' sort of thing. Truly, Harry felt sorry for the older man. He had a lot more hair and bats seemed to be getting caught in it quite easily.

They came towards an opening in the cave. Quickly they ducked into it, to escape the rabid animals. "We are out of the silent chamber," Dumbledore said, "Now we must move on."

Cedric seemed to be too sick to say anything. Harry wasn't really much better. They trudged through a deep and dark dungeon. "Is it hot in here or is that just me," Harry asked quietly. They had no way of knowing what was awaiting them in this corridor.

Cedric was sweating, "It's hot in here."

Dumbledore had stopped, observing the corridor. Really, it was more like a cavern, with extremely high ceilings and it was so wide.

"Is that soot on the walls," Harry asked as he ran his finger across a rocky wall.

"Harry, be quiet."

Abruptly Harry shut his mouth and backed away from the wall. If Dumbledore wanted him to be quiet, that was exactly what he would do, no questions asked.

They sat in silence. There was a faint noise coming from further down in the cavern, in a dark place that they couldn't see. Lightly, a wind started to cool them down coming from that direction. And that wind became faster and faster, nearly blowing them back.

Both Harry and Cedric looked at each other simultaneously, "Dragon!"

All had wands ready, pointing at the direction that the creature was sure to come.

"We cannot fight this beast," Dumbledore told them, "As soon as it is possible, we must run."

Personally, Harry thought that that was rather obvious.

Suddenly the wind stopped. There was complete silence for a long stretch of time.

"Where'd it go," he whispered.

Shortly he would discover that maybe he didn't want to know the answer to that.

The dragon fell upon them from above, wings flapping and fire breathing. Dumbledore blocked them as Harry and Cedric ran. Nothing either of them could think of would stop a dragon from attacking. After all, both of them hadn't exactly _fought_ a dragon in the Triwizard Tournament.

Dumbledore seemed to at least confuse the dragon greatly and he took off after his students. The creature, though, was right behind them. Cedric slipped, sliding forward and hit a wall. Scrambling, he got up and ran for his life.

At the same time, all four of them hit the opposite wall. Harry, Cedric, and Dumbledore flew through a small hole. The dragon hit the wall above. Just when they thought that they were safe, the dragon started to bend down and breath. It was going to breath fire into the area!

All of them ran, just barely reaching the next corridor in time. The fire crisped their clothes and hair. Slowly, they breathed in and out.

"Next time," Harry told Cedric, "Please don't invite me on one of your adventures."

Cedric merely rolled his eyes as Dumbledore turned to them.

"We're here."

Abruptly they looked around. The cavern was built intricately and glowing a strange, soft blue. In the center was what looked like five crystal pillars rising out of the ground and into the ceiling above. Strange markings were etched on the walls and the entire floor seemed to be made out of silver or something.

_"Abha de fabria ni caso."_

"Welcome to my home," Dumbledore translated.

_"Shin ja la ka magicko."_

"You have passed my magic tests."

_"Para ja dinkla fana offerita un tink."_

"And now you must offer one thing in return."

_"Brio es ni vill."_

"That is my will."

Both Harry and Cedric looked at each other in shock. Dumbledore looked as though he had come prepared.

"I give you a phoenix feather, for the courage that it represents and the ability to heal all wounds."

_"Accipto."_

Harry looked around before realizing that it was his turn, "Umm… I give you," he dug through his pockets, "my sneakoscope. It has served me well and tried to keep me safe."

_"Accipto."_

Cedric looked panicked. It was as though he had no idea what to give. Finally he said, "I give you my death. In many ways it has saved me."

There was a pause, as if the voice were thinking, _"de fala."_

The answer was different. There was a bright light. And pain. Then darkness prevailed, until light started flickering on and off. All Harry saw through his pain were images of Dumbledore falling, of Cedric screaming. Everything seemed so silent. And then there was nothing."

---

"So how did you get back," Luna asked.

Harry shrugged, "We just… were. I can't remember any of it really. All I know was that I was there… and now I'm here."

Luna smiled, brushing her hand through an unconscious Cedric's hair.

"I'm glad that you both are all right."

"So am I."

Luna giggled at his reply, although she was in her own little world. She must have had many things to think about in that imaginative world of hers.


	29. Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you very much to my wonderful beta, Ember Nickel.

Chapter 29

"Did you hear?"

"You mean about Cedric, yeah…"

"Can you believe?"

Ginny groaned, sick of all the talk going on around her. Only three people in the school could honestly say that they weren't surprised: her, Harry, and Cho. Oh, and Luna, but she didn't count since she had known about him since practically the beginning of all of this. And also with the exception of Dumbledore, of course. But now… Ginny blinked. She was happy for Luna, but knew that this wasn't going to make it any easier for her. Because her best friend had a choice: Cedric or Draco. Kind or Cruel. Sweet and Uncaring. Or, at least that's how he was in her eyes. Cho seemed to think a little better of the Slytherin Prince, but that was only because she talked to him. In disgust, she shook her head. Why anybody would want to talk to Draco was completely beyond her.

"Are you sick of all this, too?"

Ginny looked up at Harry, who was leaning over her armrest, "Yeah… it's just so weird."

"Yet you don't seem surprised."

"I knew about Cedric," Ginny told him defensively.

He raised an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"I'm only, like, Luna's best friend," she reminded him, putting a little bit of snob into her voice, "Although sometimes I don't think that I am."

Harry wrapped his arms around her and they sat for a few moments in utter silence, until, yet again, it was broken by students chattering on about Cedric, "How do they even know about him, anyway?"

"He's in the infirmary, talking to Luna and all. You know, trying to win her back from Draco and all of that jazz."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "Draco doesn't stand a chance."

"Lets hope."

"Why," Harry studied her face, "Why wouldn't she choose Cedric? He's the most obvious choice. Tons better than Draco."

Ginny shrugged, "This is Luna we're talking about. She's never been obvious in her life. I think that Draco stands a rather good chance of getting the girl. But, you're right, Cedric does have a good chance."

"You think that they have equal chances, don't you?"

"Yeah… although I wish that I could give Cedric something to help him. You know, encourage him and keep his spirits up… no pun intended."

"He doesn't need any help."

"You're right, he'll be fine."

-------------------

Cho growled, pushing Malfoy back, "Don't go in there."

"Why," Malfoy smirked. It was so devastatingly odd that it made Cho go weak. It had to have some sort of spell attached to it, "Protecting your little boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend. And no, no I'm not. I'm protecting my _friends_ against evil vermin like you. But, what would you know about friends? You don't seem to have any."

Draco growled, "Take that back."

"Why, was it a low blow?"

"No, it was truly and absolutely untrue. I won't allow any _Ravenclaw_ slandering my name." He said Ravenclaw with such disdain that it made Cho angry. Who was he to treat Ravenclaw, the house of intelligent, as though they were vermin? No, she could never allow that!

She pushed Malfoy further back. "Stay away."

His face heated up. "Is that all you have to say? Stay away? Why? What's so great about Cedric _Diggory_?"

"He deserves her."

"And I don't"

"Correct."

Draco growled and attempted to go around her. She pushed him again, "I said leave." To Cho's surprise, that's exactly what he did. He glared and turned on his heel. Cho breathed easily. It was so much easier to breath and talk when the stupid Slytherin wasn't around.

-------------------

"You probably shouldn't be lying here," Luna said, grinning teasingly.

Cedric smiled right back, "Then I'll just be going." As he went to get up, Luna slightly clutched at his shirt and brought him back onto the infirmary bed.

"Don't go."

"I'm not going anywhere." He curled an arm around her waist, finally able to enjoy the feel of being human. He was finally able to enjoy the feel of her and him together, "Trust me."

"I do." She smiled goofily, running a hand down his face, "I can't believe that you're real!"

He laughed, running his hand down her face, "I can't believe that I'm real, either." He paused, looking down at the strange blonde in his arms, "What… what happened?"

She shrugged, looking cool and calm, "There was a fight. I got involved."

"You started the fight?" Although it was a question, it felt more along the lines of a statement.

"No." She shook her head, "They did."

"Who is they," now that he was back to living, Cedric was going to find out everything that he could about Luna and what was going on with the other students. Now he could actually do something about it.

"Some Slytherins and a couple kids from other houses," she grinned strangely. It reminded him of a battle smile, something that someone would wear after winning something great. But, that was Luna. She was a warrior because if she wasn't, she wouldn't have survived as long as she did. "Don't worry, we kicked their butts. I knew that the DA would be good for something. We should have continued it."

Cedric shook his head. What the students did nowadays was amazing to him. The DA just topped it all, "We?"

"Ginny, Cho, and I. We kicked their butts," she looked surprisingly proud. "Although, just for safety, we're going to say that the spirits of the Red-Back Horn Bucklers took over. They are quite the warriors, you know."

"Ah," he smiled, nodding, "Of course," then he looked around to some of the other students in the infirmary, kept at a good distance away from Luna. They looked definitely worse for wear, "And I can see that you beat them well." Most of them were asleep, not knowing that the former ghost boy was in the infirmary. Those that were awake were staring at him openly.

"We did well," she agreed, "Next time, we will do better."

The smile started to slip onto his face broader and broader as silence began to take over. He had no idea how long they just sat there staring at each other before Luna dropped off and fell asleep. It was good for her; she needed her rest. "See ya," he planted a kiss on her forehead and covered her with blankets before heading down the corridors. He had some people he wanted to catch up with.


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you to my beta, Ember Nickel. OK, I know that my chapters are currently short and you guys don't seem to like reviewing at the moment, but I would like to know what you don't like about this fic. Or, maybe, what you enjoy about it. It would help me greatly when I go and do a revise of chapters. And about the shorter chapters thing, one chapter will more than make up for it in the future (I think it's closing in on 3,000 words). Anyway, read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 30

"Luna."

Luna lifted herself up to get a better look at the blonde haired boy, "Yes, Malfoy."

He turned red, "I-I'm sorry for… you know… everything."

"I know."

And the truth was, Luna did know. She could sense it rolling off of him. Draco hadn't wanted to hurt her. It had just… happened. He wasn't abusive. She could see it in his eyes. He was just scared. Scared of what, she wasn't sure and didn't know if she wanted to know.

"So the ghost boy is alive now," he asked. He hated himself for asking when he already knew the answer.

A faraway look appeared in Luna's eyes, like she was thinking of something so distant and alien that he would never understand it. "Yes."

"I-I-"

"We're friends, right Draco?"

Draco stopped and stared. Then he smiled, "Yeah. I guess we are." But he wanted so much more, so much that she couldn't even begin to comprehend.

Her eyes came back into focus suddenly, as though everything was suddenly much, much clearer, "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Your friendship."

That distant look appeared in her eyes again. Draco hated it. He wanted her to be the dreamy Luna Lovegood, the loon, that she had once been. This was a completely different sort of dreamy. It was like she was going through an internal nightmare that she couldn't wake out of. He could see the indecisiveness in her eyes. He sensed when it was his time to go.

"I'll be seeing you around, Lovegood," he told her as he walked out the door. Even though his heart was breaking, he knew that he had bigger fish to fry. And that fish was coming into view.

"Zabini."

"Malfoy," the other boy replied snidely. He had no time to react as Malfoy sent a fist into his face. But after he was quick to get his balance back and clutch his face. He ran at the blonde, sucker punching him in the stomach.

Onlookers gathered, although no one tried to stop them. Zabini had thrown Malfoy to the ground and climbed on top of him, trying to get a good punch into his face. But Malfoy flipped him over and started punching him repeatedly instead.

Blood was beginning to pour from both of their mouths and onto the floor. Blaise was pretty sure that his nose was broken. Draco felt as though he had a cracked rib. Still the boys fought, if nothing else than for the chance to beat the crap out of each other.

Finally someone shouted, "Stop!"

It didn't seem to work, though, as both boys ignored whoever was speaking.

_"Petrificus Totalus"_

Blaise fell to the ground. A strong hand on Draco's shoulder seemed to break him out of the fight and he stood up and looked into the face of Cho Chang. She looked furious and confused. Furious ended up winning as she slapped him across the face.

"Are you insane? Starting a fight in the corridor of Hogwarts? You must be flipping mad!"

Draco stared at her for a long period of time. He noticed a few things, like why so many boys must have liked her. She was really pretty.

"You would have punched him, too."

"No," Cho said, "I don't think I would have. I don't go around hitting people."

"You just hit me."

She glared, "That was to get you to snap out of whatever sort of phase that you're in!"

"Still, you hit me."

The girl growled as she grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the crowd of onlookers. Since the fight between Blaise and Draco was over, they became decidedly interested in the verbal spar going on between Draco and Cho. A few people were trying to help Blaise out. They stopped in an area that no students were at.

"He caused the fight that Luna was involved in."

Cho smiled sadly, "I know."

Draco looked confused, "How?"

She shrugged, trying to look noncommittal, "I was the one to drag her out of that dog pile. Too bad we were too late to get to her before she was hit by a few spells."

"Who all was involved in that fight?"

Cho thought for a few moments. "I don't know," she said, "Really, I can't remember. It seemed to be mostly a group of Slytherins, though."

"Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Were not involved," she told him.

He let out a sigh of relief. Sure, they weren't really what he'd call friends, but they were the closest things he had. And if they had tried to harm her, he didn't know what he would have done. Probably the same thing he had done to Blaise.

"So you have no idea who all was involved in the fight?" He had a hard time believing that. Cho seemed like the type who would know everyone, or close to it.

"No," she said. Something seemed to click in her mind and she instantly grinned, "You do realize that we're actually talking, right?"

Draco looked around, then at her, "I'm interrogating you."

"In an extremely nice way. I mean, you're not exactly torturing me or anything."

Draco bit back the fact that torturing was more of his father's job, not his. But, the thought of them actually having a conversation seemed to relax Cho more and she seemed to loosen up a little.

"So, besides your girlfriend or whatever getting beaten up, what's going on in your life?"

Draco stared at her, "I don't want you, for one second, to think that we're friends. We're not. We just both… care for Luna. Kind of. Sort of."

Cho found herself grinning at the boy in front of her, "Denial isn't just a river in Africa."

He glared, "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"What?"

"That stupid saying."

Cho grinned, "My friends used to tell me it when I started to like Harry but wouldn't really admit to it. It's become a favorite saying of mine since."

Draco rolled his eyes, "You liked the golden boy?"

Smiling, Cho replied, "Well, we did go out for a while, in case you didn't notice."

"You're from a different house. I try not to get involved."

"Well, me liking Harry is something like you liking Luna. It seems impossible, but it happened."

Draco frowned.

Cho studied him, then smiled sadly, "You really like Luna, don't you?"


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you to my beta, Ember Nickel. Only a few more chapters to go! Remember to read, review, and ENJOY!

Chapter 31

Draco stared at Cho. He hoped he was being menacing. It didn't appear as though it was working. Instead she was looking at him in a way that made him feel as though she could see into his very soul.

"I think that I'm in love with her," he told her.

A look crossed over Cho's eyes. It was a look that scared him greatly because of the way it made him feel so small in a vast world of knowledge. Finally, it seemed to make her look… hurt.

"Yet you hurt her. You hit her."

"I never meant to," Draco tried to defend himself. He knew that he was failing miserably. In his own mind, he deserved no defense. Not after what he did to Luna. It was too horrible for words. "I swear to God that I never meant to hurt her."

His eyes were brimming with tears that were threatening to fall. He wouldn't cry in front of her. He would never cry in front of Cho Chang.

As if sensing his depression, Cho wrapped an arm around him, burying his head into her shoulder. "You never had a chance," she whispered into his ear. Her tone was soft, as if she were hurting, too.

The fact that Cho made it seem as though she pitied him made Draco lift his head and back up, "I always had a chance. I still do have a chance. You just don't seem to realize it. You're probably hoping that Luna and Cedric don't get together, too! You used to date him."

A chortle came from her, although it sounded strained, "I am over Cedric, Draco. I've been over him for a very long time. And the sooner you see that Luna isn't the one for you, the better it will be."

Draco shook his head defiantly and said, "You just don't see it. You're blinded by what you see. Luna's my girlfriend! We dated. She never went out with Cedric Diggory."

"That's because he was a ghost." Cho was being surprisingly calm for being yelled at and all but being called an idiot, "If he had been alive, it would have made a difference. You wouldn't be able to even step into their relationship without getting bitten. Can't you see that they're in love?"

Draco growled, "You see what you want to see. I know that it's different. Besides, why should I trust your opinion? It's not like you've helped me out in the past."

Cho shook her head, as though she felt that she were talking to someone who was struck with a sudden case of stupidity. She said, "I'm not helping you. I want you to leave them be. All you're doing is making it harder for them to have a relationship. The sooner you move on, the better it will be for everyone."

"You're still in love with him," Draco accused. This hurt him. Why was everyone suddenly in love with Cedric Diggory? Not that he really cared that Cho Chang was in love with him. Really, he didn't. It just kind of hurt a little.

Cho snorted, "I'm about as in love with him as I am with the squid. See, because unlike you, I know when I'm beaten. When there's no hope for me, I learn how to give up and say that the better girl won. Not that I think of it as Luna being my better or anything. She's just got her place in Cedric's heart. I know that I can't fill that, so why continue to pine after him? There are tons of other fish in the sea."

Draco stared at her, "But you were once in love with him."

"And I still love him. Just not in that way."

He turned up his nose at her, "I see no reason why I should give up Luna just because you claim that she's in love with Cedric. If she is, she's damn good at hiding it."

Cho smiled sadly at the boy, "You're the first boy who took her out on a date, Draco. But, Cedric, he's the one whose waited for her to come around."

"I have no reason to believe that she's in love with him."

"Except for all the hints in the world," Cho argued.

"I don't have to listen to you," Draco huffed and he turned away, walking down the corridor. He was highly aware of Cho's eyes following him, but he ignored the feeling. Just because she believed that he was wrong for being in love with Luna, didn't mean that he actually was.

Cho stared after the teen bitterly. He just really didn't seem to get that there was no hope for him. She wished that he would just give up. It would be easier for everyone.

-------

"Do you need any help getting to your dorm," Cedric asked Luna, carefully helping her out of the infirmary bed.

Luna gave him a look, a happy one, but one that told him that he was completely forgetting something, "Remember, Sir Cedric, that although you have been in the Ravenclaw common room many times before as a ghost, now that you are alive it is a completely different matter entirely," she smiled a dreamy little smile at him. "Now you are reverted back to being a full-fledged Hufflepuff."

Cedric smiled and shook his head, "I'm alive."

Luna smiled, too, before she started back on her way to her dormitory. She was about halfway down her corridor when she heard the light paddling of footsteps following her. They eventually caught up with her and Cedric stood in front of her, blocking her path. In a brilliant swoop, he planted a light kiss on her cheek before grinning like a hyena and jogging back into the opposite direction.

Although she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she watched him leave, she couldn't help but wonder… where was Draco? What part did he now play in her life? Had anything really changed? She decided that it would take some major pondering, yet all she really wanted to do was sleep in her own bed.


	32. Chapter 32

Dislaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Those belong to JK Rowling. Long live the blessed woman, although I am getting rather sick of writing fanfiction for Harry Potter. I find it very amazing how much my respect for Cho has grown while writing this fic. At first I completely hated her, but now I find her to be a very interesting character.

Chapter 32

Cho normally wasn't the type to be idle. She always had things to do and people to see. But, at the moment, all she wanted to do was sit in her bed and think. Her dormmates had long since left her to her own devices. She heard their whispers. They talked of how now that Cedric was back, there was a possibility that the two would get back together again. They didn't even take Luna into account.

Thinking about Cedric being back alive… somehow it changed things, though, as much as she hadn't wanted to admit it to Draco. She did find herself thinking of Cedric in a slightly more romantic way, but that was before she remembered how he was now. He was a different person really, with a different place in her heart. She had a different place in his heart, too.

Thinking of Draco, she had to wonder what was going through that poor boy's head. He was clearly dead gone over Luna. But, she also felt that maybe Draco didn't know how he himself felt. Sometimes he seemed almost confused over the whole situation, much like she currently was with Cedric.

Malfoy… she thought about him sometimes. Not often, but randomly through the day. She couldn't help but think that he was lonely, looking for someone who was truly his friend. He would have probably thought of her as insane if she admitted that she thought he was lonely. Or he would have tried to kill her.

Draco just needed to learn how to back off. It was clear that Luna and Cedric were happy together. They were practically made for each other, when one thought about it. Cedric was the more serious, understanding balance to her craziness. Yet, he was still just crazy enough for her. Or maybe he was just crazy about her.

They really did have the perfect relationship, in a way. Unlike her. Cho thought of her current boyfriend, Davies. He had talked to her a few days ago, angrily, about how Cedric was back. He seemed to instantly jump to the conclusion that Cho would leave him for the previous ghost. But when Cho left him, she decided that it wouldn't be for that. Truth was, she was getting rather sick of the boy. He seemed to think that he was on the top of the world just because he was in his seventh year. All he really was, was insecure. Cho knew that unlike many people in their year, he hadn't received a job offer. Add that to the fact that Cho's ex was back in the picture, he had to be feeling horrible.

Overall, she knew that Davies just wasn't the one for her. And she just couldn't help but wonder who was. A flash of blonde hair and cold eyes appeared in her mind. She decided to push that image back.

-----

For the most part, lunch was silent. Harry kept on glancing between Ron and Hermione. Something strange was going on between them. They kept on looking at each other and turning bright red. Then, as if afraid that someone would see them, they'd turn away. This pattern went on for quite a while and Harry was getting frustrated with his curiosity. Ginny seemed to find the entire situation hilarious.

"So… erm," Ron began.

Both Harry and Ginny perked up, waiting for the announcement for the oddness of this behavior. They had their suspicions, but neither were going to say anything yet.

"Yes," Hermione tried to pick up where Ron left off, "well…"

The teenagers glanced at each other and turned rather red.

Harry rolled his eyes and ordered, "Get on with it."

"Well… we're dating at the moment."

"Whom are you dating," Harry asked as he jabbed into a piece of turkey on his plate with his fork. As if he didn't know.

"Well, me and Hermione are dating."

Ginny rolled her eyes, "It's about time you guys fessed up."

Harry turned towards her, "You mean, they've been dating?"

"Well, they've been snogging."

Ron and Hermione started giggling nervously. Ron actually looked a bit pale. He probably couldn't believe that his little sister had caught him snogging a girl. It would be rather embarrassing.

"Well, it's about time."

"What?"

Ginny told them, "Everyone has been waiting for you two to admit that you like each other for _ages_. It's about time."

By this time quite a few Gryffindors were looking at the quartet in curiosity.

"What's going on, mates," Cedric asked as he sat down at the table and grabbed a roll.

"Ron and Hermione are dating now."

"Finally," Cedric said in exasperation. "Really, you guys couldn't have started dating earlier than this? It's not like everyone didn't know that you would start dating."

Ginny started giggling, "Why, how did you know about this, Cedric?"

The handsome boy rolled his eyes and grinned, "When you're a ghost, you learn things, if nothing but to keep you entertained."

"Oh," Ginny nodded, understanding what was being said.

"And," Cedric started. "It's about time you started to date Harry. We've only been waiting for that for years."

The redhead blushed, "Shut up, Diggory."

Harry looked around, happy about how all his friends were able to gather around a joke until he saw Cho, sitting alone for once, at the Ravenclaw table. She seemed lost in thought and no matter who came up to talk to her, she'd just ignore them, munching on a piece of bread. She occasionally glanced towards the Slytherin table, but at what he just couldn't figure out. It couldn't have been Malfoy, could it?

"I've got to go see Dumbledore for a few moments, so I'll see you guys later," he told his friends.

"See you, Harry."

"Bye."

And so began the longest journey of his life, the final stretch in the war that was just beginning to start.


	33. Chapter 33

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. Thank you very much to Ember Nickel, my beta, and my reviewers. And all of my readers. Just thank you to everyone. Now, on with the story. Most of the conversations in this chapter belong to JK Rowling. Same with the descriptions… in fact, most of this chapter comes strait from the book, just slightly rewritten from different POVs. Sorry JK Rowling. You own pretty much all of this chapter, too. Really, I would like it if you didn't sue. Read, review, and enjoy!

Chapter 33

There was something wrong. Something horrible loomed in the air around Hogwarts. It was nearly suffocating the students. Dumbledore and Harry had both disappeared earlier that day; where to, nobody knew.

Most of the former members of Dumbledore's Army were gathered in an empty corridor in silence. All of them had been asked by Harry to help watch the castle and the students. From what they could only guess. Harry himself didn't seem to even know if anything was going to happen. He seemed to just want to be careful.

Luna was the first to break the silence, "So are we each going to take a different area?"

"I think that we should split into pairs, at the very least. We wouldn't want to be singled out, one by one, in case the castle does come under attack," Hermione said.

Everyone nodded in agreement. It seemed to be the safest plan.

"Hermione, you come with me and Fred," Ron ordered. "Neville, Luna, and George will be in another group. Each of our groups takes half the castle."

No one seemed particularly surprised about how take charge Ron was in the situation. Hermione, at least, always seemed to think that he just needed the right situation to really shine.

"What about me?" No one had noticed the soft patter of footsteps against the stone floors of Hogwarts. Cho stood somewhat awkwardly in the middle of the hall, waiting for a reply.

"Yeah, and don't count me out." Colin Creevy was also coming into view.

"What's the big deal with not telling us about this meeting. I thought we were all in the DA together." Seamus and Lee.

Hermione couldn't keep the smile off of her face, "How'd you all know we were here?"

Seamus shrugged, "Today just feels kind of weird. We figured that when things start to feel a little funny, the DA would meet, with or without all of its members."

"Seamus, Lee, Colin, and Cho, you'll make up our final group," Ron told them decisively. "My group will start at the top of the caste, Cho start in the middle. Neville, you guys start working the grounds. We'll work our way down, except for you guys, Luna, who will work your way up. Eventually you should start working the top, and we'll be at the bottom. Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

In a quiet voice, Luna added, "Now all we can do is wait."

The silence was deafening.

---

It was the group that ended up being attacked first was Cho's group. They had been taken by complete surprise. They were completely surrounded by Death Eaters when Neville arrived, surprising everyone by knocking a Death Eater over with, _"Petrificus Totalus!"_

After that, chaos broke loose, spells shooting in every direction.

"What are you all doing?"

Luna looked up in time to see a group of adults now chasing after the Death Eaters, who had split into different directions.

"Protecting the castle," Ron bellowed. "Erm… Bill."

Bill only shook his head. Fleur beside him smiled, "Vet's kick some ass."

Everyone stared at the veela girl before they all took off after the enemy. No one noticed the werewolf that was sneaking into the castle, followed by Severus Snape.

---

Draco found his palms sweating he was so nervous. Never in his life had he felt more questioning about what he was doing. Did he really want to serve the Dark Lord or was it all just a clever ploy? With Dumbledore questioning him, he had no idea.

"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

The old man's words rang strangely true in his mind, yet he refused to believe it. He had a mission to complete and if he didn't, he would surely be dead. "How do you know," he asked at once. Really, how would the old man know if he was a killer or not? He knew nothing about him, always so busy with that Potter brat. "You don't know what I'm capable of! You don't know what I've done!" The truth of the matter was, he only made a few half-hearted plans, none of them involving death.

Dumbledore seemed to regard him with nothing but a mild, critical eye. Malfoy hated it instantly and wished that the Headmaster would just say something instead of sitting there staring, "Oh yes, I do. You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts…. So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has really been in it."

He tried to tune him out, but he couldn't. There was something oddly strange in the Dumbledore's voice, as if he knew everything that went on in his stupid castle. Malfoy could feel an odd amount of hatred well up inside him. Yet, it was suppressed by a completely different feeling. Fear. He tried to argue, but even he could sense his own lack of earnestness. There was a yell from below. Draco hoped that Luna was safe inside her common room somewhere. Dumbledore said something else, but he found himself unable to listen. The fighting below was making him fearful. The one thing that he had not expected was that much of a fight. Luna…. Cho. He hoped that they were both all right.

Vaguely he heard Dumbledore state, "You are afraid to act until they join you."

"I'm not afraid!" He snarled in return. Still he made no move to hurt Dumbledore. He wondered why his body wouldn't move as he asked it to, "It's you who should be scared!"

Again, he only vaguely heard Dumbledore say, "I don't think you will kill me." Suddenly, Malfoy felt sick. He felt as though his entire insides wanted to come up and out of his body, "I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's used for years. The one Montague got lost in last year."

Dumbledore groaned, yet Draco couldn't help but feel a little pride because deep in his eyes, Draco could see that Dumbledore was mildly impressed with him. "That was clever…. There is a pair, I take it?"

Malfoy explained that in Borgin and Burkes there was another one and how they made some sort of passage. He explained how Montague heard what was going on at school and in the shop from when he was stuck in it. Finally, he explained how he managed to Apparate out, although he almost died doing it. He never did pass his test, you see. And his entire story only seemed to make Dumbledore even more impressed. He also seemed highly disappointed, but Malfoy chose to ignore that for the time being.

"There were times," Dumbledore said, "weren't there, when you were not sure you would succeed in mending the cabinet? And you resorted to crude and badly judged measures such as sending me a cursed necklace that was bound to reach the wrong hands… poisoning mead there was only the slightest chance I might drink…"

Malfoy almost couldn't keep the happiness out of his voice as he realized that he was beginning to have the upper hand again. Dumbledore's strength seemed to be leaving him. "You didn't realize who was behind that stuff, did you," he taunted, feeling confident.

This time it was Dumbledore who surprised him, "As a matter of fact, I did. I was sure it was you."

This simple statement almost put Malfoy at a loss of words, "Why didn't you stop me, then?"

And this time it was Dumbledore's turn to explain. He tried to tell Draco that Professor Snape was keeping a watch over him, but Draco countered by saying that he had made a promise to Malfoy's mother and he was double crossing Dumbledore. Then he started rattling on about all the trust he had for Snape, and Malfoy couldn't help but argue with him to show Snape's disloyalty. The old man was deranged if he thought that Snape was really on his side. He was one of the Dark Lord's favorites! Finally Dumbledore came to the final guess. Rosmerta was under the Imperius Curse.

Draco was compelled to tell Dumbledore how he communicated with Rosmerta. He had told him about everything else, so why not this?

"Enchanted coins," he said, "I had one and she had the other and I could send her messages—"

Dumbledore slipped lower as he asked, "Wasn't that the method of communication that the group called Dumbledore's Army used last year?"

Malfoy knew that the smile on his face was a twisted, half crazy one, "Yeah, that's where I got the idea from. And the mead… that idea came from the Mudblood Granger talking about how Filch couldn't recognize potions.

Dumbledore nearly cringed, "Please do not use that offensive word with me."

He couldn't help but laugh. Out of all the things to fear at the moment, he was worried over the use of a word, "I'm about to kill you and you're offended by me using the word 'Mudblood'." He couldn't help but let out another bout of strange laughter. Everything sounded so foreign to his ears.

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "And, if you're going to kill me, why haven't you done so now? We've been alone for a number of minutes, yet I am not yet dead. About tonight, I am, I must say a bit confused. How did you know that I left the castle?" Dumbledore paused, thinking carefully, "Rosmerta saw me leaving, I believe, and she tipped you off using your coins."

"Yes, although she said that you had gone for a drink."

"I did have a drink… of a certain fashion… yes."

Draco was uninterested in the details. What went on in Dumbledore's life went on in Dumbledore's life. He had no business with it. All he wanted was to see the man dead.

"We put the Dark Mark over the tower so you'd hurry up. We knew that you would want to know who had been killed."

Dumbledore seemed strangely uninterested in that tidbit, "So no one had been killed?"

Draco let out a long, slow laugh, "Oh, somebody's dead. I'm just not sure whom. It was too dark to tell." His laugh faded and suddenly he was looking miserable… and a bit green. The thought of death only made him slightly sick, he tried to reason with himself. He changed the subject, "I was supposed to be here when you got back, but the Phoenix lot was in the way…"

"They tend to do that."

There were more bangs and screams and shouts. The fighting sounded a lot closer than it had a few moments ago. Draco could feel himself pale.

Dumbledore seemed to be the composed one, which was extremely odd, given the situation. Again, Draco tuned into the conversation just in time to hear Dumbledore say, "Let us discuss your options, Draco."

He exploded, "My options! I'm standing here with a wand—I'm about to kill you—"

"My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I have no options! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

Dumbledore seemed to inwardly sigh. Malfoy knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to break him open so that the old Headmaster wouldn't end up dead. Well that wouldn't happen. No, it couldn't. He had to save his family from the Dark Lord.

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position. Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized I suspected you."

Even Malfoy couldn't keep the wince off of his face at the sound of the Dark Lord's voice. It bothered him greatly that this simple man was able to say it so freely. M It was a name that should have been feared.

I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legitimacy against you. But now at last we can speak plainly to each other… No harm as been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived… I can help you, Draco."

"No you can't," he argued. It wasn't until this moment that he realized how much he wanted to be saved from the horridness of his life. He wanted to be saved so badly from the Dark Lord that it hurt. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."

"He cannot kill you if you are already dead." Malfoy felt his throat constrict. He did not want to die any way in hell, "Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine." As he trailed on, Draco only half-listened. He was wondering what it would be like, to be hidden away so completely that no one but those who knew where he was could find him. It sounded great, but he shook his head. The Dark Lord would find him and kill him. No one could hide him well enough from the evil man himself.

"I got this far, didn't I? They thought I'd die in the attempt, but I'm here… and you're in my power… I'm the one with the wand… you're at my mercy."

"No, Draco, it is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."

He was silent, his mouth hanging open and he was trembling. Never had Draco felt so much shock, rage, and fear from a simple phrase.

Footsteps were charging up the stairs. Four people in long, black robes burst through the doors. They were Death Eaters. Draco watched as if in a dream-like state as they entered, not fully comprehending what was going on. Everything was moving too fast!

"Dumbledore cornered," one of the men with a lopsided leer said. "Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!"

The two were talking. Everyone was talking. Why couldn't he understand what they were saying? What was going on! Fenrir. He recognized the werewolf. His bones chilled as he listened to the werewolf speak.

"But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore."

He wouldn't eat any of the children, would he? That would be disgusting and vile… Death Eater-ish. A sudden spell seemed to wash over him. That was exactly what he was, a Death Eater. Dumbledore was talking again.

"Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little. And, yes, I am a little shocked that Draco here invited you, of all people, into the school where his friends live…"

"I didn't," he argued. "I didn't know he was going to come-"

They were talking. They were speaking. He was vaguely aware of the fact that they wanted him to kill Dumbledore. But he couldn't do it. Not this time, not ever. He wasn't the killing type! Not now. He would not be like his father! His hands were shaking. His entire body was shaking. He felt as though at any time he were going to collapse.

Snape had appeared. Where had the man even come from? Did he just appear out of thin air? That was impossible on school grounds; he knew enough of that from Granger.

Dumbledore was falling, collapsing into the dark. The killing curse was echoing in his mind. _"Avada Kedavra!" "Avada Kedavra!" "Avada Kedavra!"_

Snape was pulling on his arm. Draco was in too deep of shock to register anything. He merely followed. They dodged through the fighting below. Draco was aware of the fact that they were being followed by Harry. The stupid boy. Wasn't he afraid of Snape, who had so calmly killed Dumbledore? He was in danger!

Harry yelled a spell and Snape went down.

"Run, Draco," The potions master bellowed.

He ran, only to run into a familiar girl. Cho.

He pointed his wand at her. Already, he was past the point of no return. If they wanted to make him into a Death Eater, he would so be one. "Out of the way."

She held her ground, looking straight at him. It only made him wish that he didn't have to do this. She was awfully pretty after all... even if she had dated Potter.

"I can't let you do this, Malfoy."

"You can't stop me," he screamed, throwing a spell at her.

She dodged and returned with one of her own. The dodging and saying of spells went on for so long that Draco wasn't sure that either of them would ever win.

Finally, she yelled, "Think of Luna!"

The fact that she was speaking seemed to have made her lose her concentration. One of his spells hit her and sent her flying into a tree and she crumpled to the ground. The fighting was still continuing in Hogwarts. He could hear it. But, he couldn't let the girl go without knowing whether or not she was all right.

"Cho."

There was a deep gash along the side of her head. Other than that, though, she seemed to be all right. Carefully, he turned her over and put her into a more comfortable position.

"Draco."

He stood up quickly, watching the girl before him.

"Luna, what are you doing here, you should be in your common room."

The child who seemed to be descent from the moon was instead watching him. "I am capable of helping myself, sometimes, Draco."

The urge to protect her washed over him. In a sudden spurt he said, "Come with me, Luna. I'll protect you."

The girl only smiled as she watched him, "Is it truly me that you want to take with you, Draco?"

That was the million-dollar question.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Diclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters. All of those belong to JK Rowling. Thank you very much to my beta, Ember Nickel. This is the last chapter (besides the epilogue).

Chapter 34

Luna felt shocked at his question; there was no doubt about that. Would she go with him? He had to have been losing it… whatever it was. Hadn't he remembered that she had been an equal part of the DA? Did he forget that she was one of Harry Potter's friends? She supposed that he had, and that was the only excuse for this question.

"Is it truly me that you want to take with you?"

She had seen the way he had been looking at Cho only moments earlier. It wasn't a look of hatred or loathing. Instead it was one of sorrow. She had been noticing this for quite sometime, even if he didn't realize it himself. Draco Malfoy was falling for the girl.

"Of course it's you I want to take with me," he argued, looking at her with wide eyes. "But we have to go now."

She shook her head, "I can't go with you, Draco. You know that I can't."

His eyes were pleading with her and she found it hard to hold her ground. Despite everything, he needed her. But she didn't need him. "Luna, you have to go with me! I love you!"

The smile on her face wore down some, "That's not love you feel, Draco. Or, it's not the kind of love that you think it is."

"Of course it is! Luna, I want to be with you!"

Sadness washed over her, but she had to turn him away. He just didn't understand. "You should go before they come to find you."

"Come with me!"

"Draco," she said. "We're on different sides. From now on, you'll be a Death Eater and I'll be… I'll be something else entirely. I'll be part of Dumbledore's Army, from now until forever."

His eyes started to come to light with realization, "You don't love me do you?"

"Not as you are thinking, Draco."

"You love him, don't you?"

Her smile was soft, "If by 'him' you mean Cedric, then maybe. I haven't quite decided yet."

"But you know that you don't love me."

"Draco, go." Despite everything, she sounded motherly. Like her mother. Tears stung her eyes. It had been a long time since she had seen her mother. "Go."

The blonde boy shifted from foot to foot, "Tell her," he nodded towards Cho, "Tell her that I'm sorry, all right? Just next time, she should stay out of my way."

"I'll tell her that you'll miss her."

His face turned a deep scarlet, "I said sorry, not that I'd miss her, Loony."

"You're trying to say the same thing, aren't you?"

The color in his face died down. "Bye, Luna."

"I'll see you, Draco."

With that he disappeared into the night. Luna couldn't help but feel as though he were walking out of her life as a friend, not as a lover. She turned her head to the brunette girl on the ground. Quickly she tore off a piece of her uniform and bound her bleeding head with it.

"Luna!"

Cedric was rushing towards her, his face full of worry.

"Luna!"

"Over here, Cedric."

The handsome boy came to her side, bending down beside her. "I thought you were gone."

"With Draco?"

They started to hoist the unconscious girl over their shoulders, "He was my only competition, wasn't he?"

"I would have never thought of going with Draco."

A smile graced his face, warm and bright, "Thank god." He turned his smile to look at her, his face going a lovely color of cherry. "Erm… have I ever told you how pretty you look?"

"I am a mess from the fight, Cedric. Of course I look beautiful." Sometimes beauty was achieved in odd ways.

"No, I think… I think that maybe you're beautiful because… I, erm… love you."

She turned her head sharply to look at him, "You love me?"

"I think so."

Luna smiled, a smile that made the sun bow and the moon weep, "I think that I might love you too, Cedric."

There was a cough coming from Cho, "Could you two stop with the mushy gushy confessions until I'm well out of earshot?"

"Of course, Cho," they replied in time. A faint giggle came from the girl and then she seemed to be unconscious again.

"I think we better get her to the hospital wing quickly."

Luna nodded, "After all, she must have been crazy not to want to hear our mushy gushy love confession."

--

"Mama," she cried, swinging into the embrace of the older blonde woman. The woman smiled, and then frowned.

For the first time since she had started to have the dream, the two darkly cloaked figures emerged. One was Draco Malfoy. The other was Cedric Diggory.

"Did you choose?"

Luna nodded, her eyes on Cedric, "I chose."

The darkness seemed to pull Draco out of her reach. In reality he had always been just too far away for her to truly grab on to.

"I chose Cedric."

Her mother smiled down upon her, the brilliant smile that won her the hearts of nearly everyone she had come across while she was still living.

"I think that you made the right choice."

She looked up at her mother, tears forming in her eyes. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too, Luna."

"Are you proud of me?"

"No parent could be happier."

And the girl smiled into the soft, yellow cloak of her mother. "Thank you."

"No thanks is needed."

Her vision started to blacken. Every figure seemed to melt away into the landscape. And finally, Luna slept peacefully.

A/N: Wow. This project was nearly three years in the making. Three long, hard, grueling years full of writers blocks and breaks. Thank you to all that have been loyal readers and reviewers of the story. Without you… well, the story would have gone on, but I wouldn't have been quite as happy writing it. For a while, I don't think that I'm going to do another Harry Potter fic. At least not like this one. If I do, I'm thinking of making one based upon Fred/George and you know… what happened. It would probably involve a very strange OC and all that jazz. Sad that this is over? I have two more Harry Potter fics on my page: _The Girl Who Laughed Last_ and _Brain Candy_. Check 'em out. Remember to review! It makes me very happy! Oh, and expect a rewrite of this that is much better and more character intact within the next five years.


	35. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any such characters.

The epilogue. The end to my first chapter-length story. The thing that I have both been begging to come, yet not want to come. This will probably be my last Harry Potter fic for a while, unless you like Brain Candy, for which a sequel type thing is soon coming out. If you haven't read it, head over to my profile page and check it out. Thank you, my BETA, Ember Nickel. This is totally and completely AU.

The Epilogue- The End

The sun rose over the cool mountains. Luna found herself staring, pen and paper in hand, drawing and writing and wondering what sort of magic could create such an experience. For three years she had been running and fighting and dying. Now she was living. For three years she had been wondering where her next meal would come from, where she would be, and planning attacks. For three years she had been one of Harry Potter's loyal followers. Now she was finally free. She was free of the war that she was bound to. Harry was dead, but, then again, so was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or as she referred to him, That-Bloke-Voldemort-Who-Kicked-The-Can. The war was over. Harry had once told her that he wanted to be buried in Africa. He wanted to be buried in the place where witches and wizards and shamans had fought harder than anyone for the peace of the wizarding world. And that was where he was. Buried in Africa. But, he was not just buried in Africa. No, that would be far too simple for a man like Harry had been.

He had a temple. Three stories high and made completely out of white marble and gold, a gift from the ruler in the east. Priests and Priestesses managed the place; they kept it clean and tidy. But, then again, they were witches and wizards, too, so if robbers came near they could easily protect the valuables and the body (apparently some people from China decided to experiment with bringing bodies back to life and wanted Harry's. There had been six break-ins so far.). Witches and wizards were also making pilgrimages to the tomb, just to touch the coffin (more like a pharaoh's sarcophagus) and hope that some of the power that saved so many lives would rub off on them. She had made the pilgrimage herself once, but that wasn't to touch his coffin. No, she felt that he needed a good bedtime story and who better to give it to him than herself?

Ginny had stood by him. Even when she fell out of love she stood by him, because she knew that he needed her more than he needed anything before. But, she had never reached her dream. After Harry had died she fell into a sort of depression. He was her best friend, her lover, and he died. So she made a vow. She would never marry and she would never date. She would never even look at another man. She had done that while she was with Harry and she knew it hurt him more than it had hurt any man before. It would be her honor, her sacrifice to him. She ran a home, which had previously been the Burrow, for orphans and the homeless, those who had been broken by the war. She was happy, even without her dreams coming true.

Luna shook her head. There was so much that Ginny had wanted to do; so many dreams that she had developed that it almost made her cry that they would never come true. But it was what Gin wanted, and for that she forced herself to be happy. "What's wrong?"

Cedric. Her doting husband, strong and agile and smart and always ready to prove himself ready for the life he had gotten. They hadn't always been together through the three years of the war. They had both wanted to protect each other and had felt breaking up (three times) was the only way to do it. Neither had known the other was working for the same cause until the last year of the war. Cedric was spying, a dangerous job, and Luna had developed thirty spells for the cause, although they were said to be 'anonymously invented'. Finally, against their better judgment, they got back together and they stayed together. And they both lived out the war.

"I'm just thinking." Luna smiled.

Cedric shook his head, "You think too much."

"It's kind of hard not to with all that's happened."

Cedric nodded, "Especially with Snape and Dumbledore."

Luna nodded in agreement. Especially with Snape and Dumbledore. It kind of came as a surprise to her; she had never imagined that such an event would have happened. Apparently, everything had been planned out. The killing of Dumbledore wasn't actually the killing of Dumbledore. It was a strange sleeping spell that Snape had said while he was saying the adavra kadavra. Both of them had the entire thing planned out. And it wasn't that Snape said the adavra kadavra, he did, and he just said it a little differently. She wasn't certain on all of the details, but somehow Dumbledore was living and Snape was on the good side. Things got stranger than in any of her wildest dreams.

Cho. That was one thing that she had never seen coming. She had thought that the pretty Scottish-Asian girl hated Draco Malfoy. Apparently it was the exact opposite. Sometime at Hogwarts the two had started to interact (although it was just fighting), but then they seemed to have built up… a strange sense of love and loyalty for each other. Luna had found out about Cho's feelings by pure accident…she had walked in while Cho was communicating with the enemy boy on a mission (and it wasn't giving away their whereabouts or anything, just checking up on him). Now they were dating. Ginny predicted the two would be engaged soon. Ginny tended to be right about these sorts of things.

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Harry or Voldemort had lived," Cedric asked as he took a sip of tea. He always seemed to have tea somewhere nearby.

"I think," Luna paused, "I think that it would have been chaos. They both had to die to prove something. Just as both Dumbledore and Snape had to live. I would love more than anything for my friend to still be alive…all of my friends to still be alive, but it would have messed with the natural order of things."

Remus and Tonks, Bill and Fleur, they were all happily married, too. Hermione…somehow started to date George. 'Maybe somehow isn't the best word choice,' Luna thought to herself, 'More like she felt obligated to.' Ron had been killed protecting Harry. His body was by Harry's in the temple, always looking out over it as a friend and loyal protector should. Hermione didn't take the death quite as drastically as Ginny did when Harry died. She became depressed, yes, and she tried to kill herself (three times), but eventually she learned to live. She wanted to be happy again, even with her two best friends dead. George had been sort of like a back up plan…for Ron anyway. Ron had told Hermione that if he died, he wanted his girlfriend to always be with the family (a very odd request in many people's opinion, including Luna's). Apparently, Hermione couldn't help but start dating George. He had comforted her through the pain.

The hardest part of them being married was having to meet up with his parents after so long. It was so emotional that she could barely stand it. There was screaming and crying and fury. Finally, when they learned of how she married their son, they were shocked. Then there was more screaming, crying, and fury. They, apparently, remembered the name Lovegood and the crazy family who lived behind it. It wasn't easy, but they had managed. It took them a long time to let Cedric out of their sight. They had been without him for so long. But, there was also so much pain in seeing him. Soon, they let him be free and out of their grasp, but they always seemed to want to make sure that he was there, actually living and actually married.

With a final smile, Luna closed her hands around her husband's, living in his comfort. "Luna, are you alright?" His voice was so soothing.

"I'm perfect."

.Finished.

Here is a list of all of the actual couples/hinted couples in this story (if you squint hard enough):

Luna/Harry

Luna/Malfoy

Luna/Cedric

Luna/Neville

Cho/Harry

Cho/Malfoy

Cho/Cedric

Cho/Roger

Ginny/Neville

Ginny/Harry  
Hermione/Ron

Hermione/George


End file.
